Music can soothe even the most savage Internet troll…sometimes. For those other moments, you’ll need a fearless spirit and a lot of panache — something that Sebastien De La Cruz has in spades. During game three of the 2013 NBA Finals, De La Cruz, a former “America’s Got Talent” contestant and his powerful voice filled in for fellow singer Darius Rucker. Dressed in a dashing charro outfit, the 11-year-old crooner, belted out a rousing rendition of the “Star-Spangled Banner” that brought raucous applause throughout the San Antonio Spurs’ AT&T Center arena.

It was a beautiful moment until the Twitter-verse caught wind. Taking exception to the boy’s outfit and ethnic name, Twitter was awash with people voicing their displeasure. The result was a disturbing amount of hate speech and attempts to label the Mexican-American vocalist as an illegal alien from a slew of semi-anonymous adults. While the ethnic slurs were dismaying, the illegal alien comments were especially hurtful since De La Cruz’s father is a U.S. Navy veteran. De La Cruz wasn’t without his supporters however as San Antonio’s mayor, Julian Castro and Spurs’ coach Gregg Popovich quickly came to the singer’s defense.

Yet, the fifth grader demonstrated wisdom and grace well beyond his years saying that his Mexican heritage doesn’t mean he’s not an American. “With the racist remarks, it was just people — how they were raised. My father and my mama told me you should never judge people by how they look.” He also used his platform to give the haters a lesson on having pride in your heritage, stating, “It’s what I love and I’m just proud to be a mariachi singer. It’s their opinion actually and if they don’t like mariachi, that’s their problem. I love it.”

Sebastien wasn’t the only fan as the Spurs invited the talented troubadour for an encore performance for game four of the series where he received a standing ovation and props from actress Eva Longoria and President Barack Obama. As for the negative Twitter commenters, a number of them found themselves at the center of a backlash as media outlets proceeded to match names with accounts. Some users shut down their social networking accounts in an attempt to escape the scrutiny. It just goes to show, haters gonna hate, but they can’t stop a star from shining.