Kids Rock Cancer music therapist Jaime K. Wilhite recently met Kids Rock Cancer rock star Samaria for a unique songwriting session she describes as “serendipitous.”
Samaria was first introduced to Kids Rock Cancer when she was being treated for sickle cell at SSM Health Cardinal Glennon Children’s Hospital. It took a while for the then-11 year old to warm up to the microphone, but when she did, her music therapist learned she had already been writing lyrics about dealing with her illness, which became the basis for her first song, “Samaria’s Rap Song.”
Imagine Jaime’s surprise when, in October 2017, she was talking to patients at Cardinal Glennon about the program and ran into Samaria. The pair immediately hit it off as Samaria reminisced about the song she wrote eight years ago. She still remembered every word, but didn’t have a copy of it. Jaime was able to pull out her computer and, with a little digging, find Samaria’s original track!
After listening to it, Jaime and Samaria decided to do a remix, with new lyrics and updated lyrics to fit her life now.
“Writing and performing is a great expressive outlet for Samaria at any age,” Jaime says, adding that she was sure to give Samaria a copy of both her songs before leaving the session. “I was impressed she remembered all her lyrics from eight years ago — what an impression that first KRC session had on an 11 year old.
“Samaria is an absolute joy to work with and stays modest about her rapping talents — she is a true rock star.”