How a singer's chance encounter led to an alien experience in Hollywood

How a singer's chance encounter led to an alien experience in HollywoodImage caption, Winnie Ama performed her original song 'What are we' in the Supergirl film which released in UK cinemas on 25 JuneByJake WoodBBC News NIPublished22 July 2026, 06:41 BSTUpdated 48 minutes ago"Would you like to be in my film?"It's a question any singer songwriter dreams of being asked by a big movie director, and when the question was put to Winnie Ama after performing in a bar one night, she couldn't believe her luck. But there was a catch. As part of her role in the new Supergirl movie, her original song 'What are we' needed to be translated into an alien language. Two weeks after the Belfast singer's chance encounter with the film's director, she and her pianist were invited for an official audition. "I had never acted before, so I was sweating quite a lot, but we made it, and we got the part in the room," Winnie said. "We went for fittings straight away, and it went from there."She was cast to play a singing alien in the new Supergirl film, which was released last month.To play this video you need to enable JavaScript in your browser.This video can not be playedFigure caption, Winnie had never acted before being cast in the Supergirl film'I've always wanted to be an alien'Winnie is well used to the spotlight - from performing in London bars to outdoor music festivals - but singing in an alien language brought a whole new world of challenges. Her character performs her original song in an alien bar in space, when Supergirl visits the planet of Bilquis. 'What are we' is the first song Winnie released as a solo artist in 2020, and an alien language specialist was hired to help her translate it into the Bilquis language. "We went through each word and each syllable to make sure that the pronunciation was perfect for Bilquis," she said."He told me about the structure and...