Since I did a story time on how my acting career was launched, I thought I would do a little part two to talk about how I started singing as well. I have enjoyed music my entire and was in Kindermusik classes from the age of 18 months to 8 years and started taking piano lessons in third grade. But I never really got into singing until the tender age of 11 back in 2003. During that year the television series American Idol was starting to take off in it’s popularity and after the second season of the show aired its finale, a new spin off series was launched called “American Juniors.” Basically American Juniors was a special version of American Idol for kids ages 6-13. But instead of having one winner five children were selected for a pop music group and to alleviate hurt feelings contestants were voted in instead of being voted out. So contestants were first voted into the top 10 and then every week after that the child who pulled the highest vote got into the group. I really enjoyed the regular American Idol show but was even more intrigued by American Juniors. It was one thing to see adults who were quite a bit older than me competing in a singing competition but there was something even more fascinating about seeing kids my age singing on national television. I remember watching American Juniors week after week and being like “I want to do that!” I became so intrigued by the show that I began singing the songs from American Juniors in my room and even playing American Juniors with my dolls and stuffed animals where I pretended to be Ryan Seacrest and that my dolls and stuffed animals were being voted into a pop group.
Through my enjoyment of American Juniors, I discovered how much I loved singing. After the first and only season of American Juniors ended I started fifth grade and joined the school choir that year. I stuck with choir throughout the remainder of my schooling and enjoyed it. But I definitely struggled with stage fright when it came to singing solo. I remember the first time I auditioned for a solo in fifth grade choir. I walked into the music room and discovered that singing a solo in front of people was not as easy as it looked on TV. I stood up there and sang really quietly because I got so scared of people watching me. To be fair though our choir teacher didn’t give us the music we would be auditioning with ahead of time and taught us the song on the spot. So I was definitely not prepared for this audition at all. But still I struggled with stage fright for many years after this and would only sing in my room with the door shut. I wouldn’t even sing for my family or friends. It wasn’t until 8th grade choir that I decided to take singing a little more seriously and started taking voice lessons. Through the voice lessons I started becoming a little more comfortable with solo singing and finally worked up the courage to try singing a solo in choir again. This time I sang The Star Spangled Banner in front of my 8th grade choir for bonus points and was well prepared this time because I had practiced with my voice teacher the night before. I ended up getting a lot of applause for my first solo performance and I could see people’s jaws on the ground when I returned to my seat. I guess people were surprised that shy little Colleen could actually sing! My confidence grew from there and once I got into high school I continued with choir and voice lessons and began singing in recitals at the music center where I took lessons. I also got to go to my state solo and ensemble contest 3 out of 4 of my high school years for vocal solo and received excellent and superior ratings. In addition I also made the Tri-M music honorary at my school and got to sing in two different recitals for that. The more I sang in recitals and contest the easier it became to get up in front of people and perform. By the end of high school I had completely overcome my stage fright and now I really enjoy singing for an audience. My last live performance with singing was at an open mic night at my church a few years. But I still do livestream shows on Facebook about twice a year and play in piano recitals.
It’s amazing to think that my love of performing all got started with a show like American Juniors. Sadly American Juniors was cancelled after just one season because the group that was formed through the show didn’t really take off and their only album was released a year after the show ended. By that time people had sort of forgotten about the show and the album didn’t sell. Looking back on it the group was kind of all over the place with kids of different ages whose voices didn’t necessarily blend and the fact that there was only one boy voted into the group of five. There was also a 14 year girl in the group who had a very powerful voice. So a lot of times she got the solos while the other kids served as backup. That probably wasn’t the original intention of the show. Plus pop groups were kind of going out of style at the time as well. So I can see where American Juniors didn’t really take off. But either way it definitely inspired my love of singing and performing and that has gone a long way in 22 years.
