Family's surprise as Sheikh Hamdan shares video of young Filipino singer

Video received more than a million views within hours of the Crown Prince of Dubai posting it

Kael Lim, 4, who lives in Manila with his mother, has been singing since he was 2. Photo: Manel Lim

The mother of a young Filipino singing sensation has expressed her surprise and gratitude after Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohammed, Crown Prince of Dubai, shared a video of Kael Lim, who is only 4, performing the Bee Gees classic How Deep is Your Love.

The video, which was posted in June, had received a few thousand views before Sheikh Hamdan shared it on his Instagram Stories on Saturday. Within hours, more than a million people had viewed it.

"We were really shocked. We couldn’t believe it. It was such an honour for us and we feel so proud," Kael's mother Manel Lim tells The National.

"We only found out when one of my friends who’s living in Dubai messaged me that the Crown Prince shared Kael’s video. That’s the only time I checked Instagram and saw that it’s real. Upon seeing it, I woke up my husband in the US immediately and told our families. They were all ecstatic.

"The video got around one million views when the Crown Prince shared it and is still increasing up to now. We also received messages informing and tagging us that Sheikh Hamdan shared the video, especially from Filipinos in Dubai."

Manel, a homemaker, lives in Manila with Kael, while her husband, Gabriel, works as a concierge at a club in the US. She says Kael took to music early and began singing when he was aged 2.

"It was his dad who discovered he can easily hum a song being played and can memorise a song in two days," she says. "And they used music to bond with each other."

Kael regularly posts famous covers of English and Tagalog songs on his YouTube, TikTok and Instagram accounts, which are managed by his parents.

The family has never been to Dubai but would love to visit soon, says Manel.

Last week, a video of a food delivery driver clearing two construction blocks from the middle of a busy Dubai road went viral after Sheikh Hamdan shared it, asking the public to help find him for his “act of goodness”.

The Talabat rider, Abdul Ghafoor Abdul Hakim, who is from Pakistan, was soon located and received praise from the Crown Prince of Dubai for his action.

Hakim, 27, a father of two, was at a traffic light in Al Quoz when he spotted concrete blocks in the middle of the road. He saw a car drifting to avoid the blocks and felt it was necessary to move them to keep other drivers safe.

Despite being in the middle of a busy traffic junction, he waited for the road to clear before removing the blocks, placing them on the pavement and then getting back on his bike.

The video appeared to be captured by a motorist sitting at a nearby red light. Within 20 minutes of the post going live, the Crown Prince followed up the tweet by saying he had found the man.

“The good man has been found,” he said, posting a picture of Mr Hakim. “Thank you Abdul Ghafoor, you are one of a kind. We will meet soon!”

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