The girl in this clip is Lorelai Moșneguțu, a Romanian teenager born without arms, who sang and played an electronic keyboard with her toes on Românii au talent, the Romanian edition of the Got Talent format. Her audition in March 2017 earned the Golden Buzzer, and a few months later television viewers voted her the winner of the whole season. If you came here wondering who she is, what she sang and whether she won, those are the short answers. The longer story is worth the extra minutes.
Who is Lorelai Moșneguțu?
Lorelai comes from Târgoviște, a city about 80 kilometres north-west of Bucharest. She was 14 when she walked onto the Pro TV stage. Romanian press coverage at the time described a hard start in life: she was reportedly abandoned as a baby and then taken in by Viorica Pârva, a woman who worked in child social services and who became her adoptive mother. Romania Insider’s report on the audition added that she did not speak until she was three and could not walk until she was four.
What is well documented is how she learned to live in a body that most tools are not designed for. She writes, draws, paints, uses a laptop and plays the keyboard with her feet. Her toes do the work that fingers do for other pianists, and her legs and hips do much of what arms and shoulders would normally manage. That takes years of practice and a level of flexibility that most adults could not reach.
The underlying condition was not described in detail in the reports we found, and it is not ours to guess. Being born without one or more limbs is uncommon but not rare, and it has many possible causes. Families who want to understand a specific diagnosis should talk to a doctor or a genetics service.
The audition: song, judges and the Golden Buzzer
The audition aired on 10 March 2017. Lorelai chose “A Million Stars”, a ballad that the singer Luminița Anghel had performed in Romania’s national selection for the 2015 Eurovision Song Contest. Anghel is well known to Romanian viewers: in 2005 she represented the country at Eurovision with “Let Me Try” and finished third.
The video does not need translation. Before Lorelai sings, the faces in the audience show curiosity and some uncertainty about what is about to happen. Once her voice comes in over her own accompaniment, the mood changes completely. Several people in the hall cry, and so do some of the judges.
At the end, judge Mihaela Rădulescu pressed the Golden Buzzer. In Got Talent shows this button is a wildcard: each judge, and in some seasons the host, can use it once, and it sends an act straight past the usual voting into the next stage of the competition. For Lorelai, that meant a direct place in the semi-finals.
The clip above was shared internationally by Got Talent Global, the YouTube channel that collects performances from the many national versions of the show, which is how a Romanian-language audition reached viewers far beyond Romania.
How she won Romania’s Got Talent 2017
The Golden Buzzer is a strong start, not a guarantee. Plenty of Golden Buzzer acts across the world have gone home in a semi-final. Lorelai kept her momentum. In the final in June 2017 she performed “Rise Like a Phoenix”, the song with which the Austrian singer Conchita Wurst won Eurovision in 2014, and while she sang she drew a phoenix with her toes. The choice of song suited the moment: it is about rising after being written off.
PRO TV viewers voted her the winner of the season. The prize was a trophy and 120,000 euros. Romania Insider, an English-language news site based in Bucharest, reported both the March audition and the June win, which is where many of the dates in this article come from.
Why this performance moved people
It is easy to explain the reaction as pity followed by surprise, and the original viral write-ups leaned heavily on that. A more accurate reading gives Lorelai more credit. Three things made the performance land.
She is a real musician
Her voice is clear, warm and well controlled for a 14-year-old, and she keeps steady time on the keyboard while singing, which is hard for any performer. Accompanying yourself means splitting attention between two jobs. Doing it with your feet adds balance and posture to the list.
The song choices told a story
“A Million Stars” and later “Rise Like a Phoenix” both carry a message about hope and resilience. Her choices let the music frame her life without the show having to underline it.
Television knows how to shape a moment
Talent shows are edited. The pre-recorded interview, the camera cuts to crying faces and the swelling music are all part of the craft of the programme. That does not make the emotion fake, but it is worth remembering that a three-minute segment is a produced piece of television, not a full portrait of a person.
Painting, books and life after the show
Music is only one part of what Lorelai does. She also paints and writes, and she has published several books. Foot painting has a long history: the Association of Mouth and Foot Painting Artists of the World, founded in 1957 in Liechtenstein, with the German painter Erich Stegmann as its first president, has supported artists who paint with their mouths or feet for decades, and its members sell cards and prints worldwide.
Lorelai is also part of a wider group of performers and achievers who were born without arms. The American pilot Jessica Cox, for example, earned a pilot’s certificate in 2008 and flies with her feet, and the guitarist Tony Meléndez famously played for Pope John Paul II in 1987. Stories like these are not proof that anyone can do anything; they show what becomes possible when a person has the right support, time and stubbornness.
By September 2023, Romanian television reported that Lorelai had moved to Bucharest to study at university, with Viorica Pârva still at her side. She described living an ordinary student life, which, after a childhood spent proving people wrong, may be the best headline of all.
Common myths about people born without arms
Viral videos often come wrapped in assumptions. A few worth correcting:
- “She must be miserable.” Many people with limb differences say the hardest part is not their body but how others react to it, from staring to low expectations.
- “Feet can only do simple tasks.” With practice from early childhood, feet can write, type, cook, drive adapted cars and paint in fine detail.
- “The story is about overcoming disability.” For the performer, the story is usually about the work itself. Lorelai won a singing competition because she sang well.
- “Watching her should shame us into action.” The original version of this post asked readers what their excuse was. A kinder lesson is simply that talent shows up in places we do not expect, and that it deserves a fair hearing.
If you enjoyed her audition, the best follow-up is to listen to the final as well. Hearing her sing “Rise Like a Phoenix” while finishing a drawing with her toes shows how much she grew in a few months, and why the public chose her.
Sources: Romania Insider, 13 March 2017: Romania’s Got Talent: Girl with no arms impresses the audience to tears; Romania Insider, 3 June 2017: Girl with no arms wins Romania’s Got Talent; România TV, 4 September 2023: Ce face Lorelai Moșneguțu, la 6 ani după ce a câștigat Românii au talent; video: Got Talent Global on YouTube; Wikipedia: Association of Mouth and Foot Painting Artists of the World; Wikipedia: Jessica Cox; Wikipedia: Tony Meléndez.
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