Holly Maniatty , a sign language interpreter, totally upstaged Snoop Dogg during Jazz Fest in New Orleans with her enthusiastic translating.
The Good Life Radio Show posted a video to Facebook that features Maniatty crushing it as Snoop performs “P.I.M.P.” — and it’s almost impossible to keep your eyes off of her.
The video, which was posted on Saturday, already has 11 million views.
“She puts her all into studying each artist, not just the lyrics but the body language and gestures,” said one Facebook commenter who says she’s Maniatty’s cousin. “It’s all or nothing; go big or go home!”
Maniatty has made headlines in the past for her badass skills, like when she interpreted for a Public Enemy concert in 2015 and killed it at Wu-Tang Clan show at Bonnaroo in 2013.
She told NPR’s “All Songs Considered” in 2013 that she does a ton of preparation work for each concert she signs for. Beforehand, she researches where the performer is from, where they grew up and even their political affiliations.
“For example, the sign ‘brotha’ in Atlanta is different than the one for New York City,” she explained to NPR. “So in order to make the interpretations as authentic as possible so the deaf patron is getting as close to the same experience as the hearing people are getting, I’m using signs that are, you know, indigenous to where that person, you know, grew up, or where they’re from or where they’re living currently.”
And all that hard work has definitely paid off. During her radio interview, Maniatty explained that after she interpreted at the Wu Tang show, a deaf concert-goer came up to her and said: “I never really got why people like hip-hop so much and now I get it.”
