A New Beginning After 60: Rosemarie’s Winning Moment
By Anna Gardner
Rosemarie Hameed, 61, has faced many challenges throughout her life. Separated from her younger sister when she entered foster care at age 10, she spent her teenage years in youth homes and living on the street. At 16, Rosemarie became a mother for the first time. She went on to raise eight children, including two of her sister’s, while also working through PTSD from significant life traumas.
“Singing was the only thing I had to focus myself,” she says. “If I feel like singing, I let it out. That is a form of therapy for me.”
On October 10, 2024, her years of caring for herself through song paid off as Rosemarie stepped onto the stage as a finalist in a competition that began with 1,000 acts—and was declared the winner. Talent is Timeless is a competition hosted by NYC Aging that showcases the spirit, resilience, and almost limitless potential of older adults, offering them a platform to demonstrate their abilities while challenging ageist stereotypes. For the second year, New Yorkers age 60 and older competed in Talent is Timeless, with the first round at older adult centers around the city, then advancing onto borough semifinals.
Rosemarie was presented her first place award from NYC Mayor Eric Adams and NYC Aging Commissioner Lorraine Cortés-Vázquez.
Rosemarie found Henry Street’s Older Adult Center through its sewing group and karaoke afternoons. “This is a safe haven for me,” she says. So, when the opportunity came to perform in the first round of Talent is Timeless, she knew she wanted to compete and represent Henry Street.
After winning the first round, Rosemarie went on to dazzle the audience at the Manhattan semi-finals at Lincoln Center, also winning first place. Her prize included free lessons from professionals at Juilliard, a gift, and an experience she says she will cherish.
After performing at Lincoln Center, Rosemarie remarks, many people asked her whether she sang professionally, saying she could have been something great. Rosemarie pops right back with, “Oh really? What if I am something already great?”
Ahead of her grand finale performance at the historic United Palace in Washington Heights, Rosemarie wasn’t feeling any nerves, saying, “I know that there’s people there, I know there’s an audience, but it doesn’t feel like I’m there.” When given the opportunity to sing, “it’s like I’m stepping into a different realm.”
Taking the stage second to last in a lineup of 22 performers, Rosemarie fully embraced her moment. After bantering with celebrity emcee Jackie Hoffman, she began her performance with a heartfelt acapella rendition of a Puerto Rican hymn, one she picked up from her grandmother. Then, she captivated the crowd and judges with her rendition of Natalie Cole’s “Inseparable.”
When Rosemarie was announced the competition winner, she was a bit stunned, but proudly stepped forward to accept her trophy from Mayor Eric Adams and NYC Aging Commissioner Lorraine Cortés-Vázquez. For her, this win is proof that life is just beginning. “I came to life after the age of 60,” she shared, eagerly looking forward to what’s yet to come.
