TEL AVIV, Israel — YouTube, a Google destination, has decided to remove a music video of young opera singer Daniella Lugassy, claiming the video violates its community guidelines which prohibit nudity and sexual content, even though there is absolutely no nudity in the video, which is clear to anyone watching it. The music video is a unique cover of Coldplay’s “Fix You” and is available on Vimeo –http://www.vimeo.com/77819106
The music video is part of a larger project Daniella is working on in an effort to bring classical music and specifically opera to the masses. Daniella is recording an album that will feature covers of popular songs like “Fix You”, alongside classics like “Ave Maria”. All the covers feature arrangements that have a hint of opera and classical music.
This summer Daniella already released covers of “Enjoy the Silence” by Depeche Mode, and “Fields of Gold” by Sting. The music videos were very well received by the YouTube community and received hundreds of thousands of views – quite a feat for a classical music performer. The videos are available on Daniella’s YouTube page http://www.youtube.com/user/omats23
The video of the “Fix You” cover was uploaded to YouTube just a few days ago and was getting thousands of views every day, as well as positive comments from members of the YouTube community. That is why Daniella was shocked when YouTube removed the video, claiming violations of its guidelines regarding nudity and sexual content. While the video does feature the beautiful opera singer, and includes a scene where Daniella is wearing a bikini, its content is far from explicit, and one can find much sexier videos on YouTube, especially from the big pop stars.
In fact, one of the most popular videos on YouTube today is “Wrecking Ball” byMiley Cyrus, in which the young starlet is literally hanging naked from a wrecking ball. It is odd that Miley Cyrus in her birthday suit is considered appropriate content, while an opera singer fully clothed violates some conduct regarding nudity. According to YouTube stats, more than 200 million viewers were exposed to the completely nude Miley Cyrus.
“A lot of hard work and effort was put into creating this song and video,” commented Daniella Lugassy. “I don’t think any of the content in the video is inappropriate, especially when compared to videos from Miley Cyrus, Britney Spears, Rihanna and many others.”
“I want to show the world that opera can be fun and cool, so I recorded these opera-like covers to some of my favorite pop and rock songs,” continued Daniella. “YouTube is the perfect place to bring a niche like opera to the general public, and I hope they will reconsider their decision to remove the video from their platform.”
