Whitney Houston’s “Saving All My Love for You”
So I auditioned for a singing contest last weekend. So far I’ve made it through the auditioning process and am on to the 12 week contest. Whoo hoo!!! We’ll have to see what happens. How knows? I could win and be discovered. Haha. Sure, R&B/Pop would be the obvious choice but I’d really love to be the first successful black female country singer. What? I’m from Nashville and I could make a career on ballads rather than abs. Plus, Hootie made it work. (a.k.a. Darius Rucker). Anyway…
I’ve been singing nearly my entire life. Seeing as saying my entire life would be impossible. Thanks to my grandmother being my normal babysitter, I was 5 years old sitting next to her in the adult (a.k.a. old lady) choir singing “Amazing Grace” with the full vibrato of a 60-year-old woman. At age 7, I left the rest of the little kids playing barn animals in the Christmas play at church to sing a duet with the 14-year-old angel. (No, seriously, I got up in my pink footy pajamas for which my mother had made matching ears and a tail to sing with the “Oh so cool” teenager. The things you remember from childhood. And the funny part was that I had a better voice than her. Haha.) Singing Whitney Houston’s “Saving All My Love For You” in a 6th grade talent show. The mother of a classmate who’d rapped Coolio’s “Gangsta’s Paradise” told me I had a pretty voice but that my song was completely inappropriate. Funny, right? Going from 1st soprano to tenor in the high school gospel choir because we didn’t have any guys. Being the 1st and 4th Cyclone Idol. Haha, a freshman journalism major beat senior vocal majors. Etc. You get the point. I love to sing and seem to be pretty good at it.
This “natural talent/gift” has always been a source of pride for me. Sure, there are always going to be people who are better than me but they’re not always that easy to find, not like those who are smarter or prettier. Singing was always the one thing that made me special. Not in a way that justified my existence but just enough to make me smile a little.
The weird thing about me performing live is that I don’t really get nervous…until after. I’m confident, almost indifferent. It’s just singing. I probably seem pretty bitchy about the whole thing. That is until I’ve finished the song. As soon as I finish that last note, the awkward pause of silence before applause is nauseating. It’s not even that I’m waiting on the applause. It’s just knowing that I’m finished, that I can’t make it any better, that whatever I just did would have to represent my best. But I’ll be honest, I don’t mind the applause…. 🙂
This contest could prove to be interesting. While it’s my ego talking, I know that I’ll be better than some of the contestants. Sorry, if that’s offensive but it’s true. But boo on the people that are obviously better than me. It’s a 12 week process so I might make it halfway through. I’m just not looking forward to another disappointment.
Let’s just hope I get a job offer before I’m voted off,
Jo’van
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The Truth: According to Jo'van 
I’ll keep it simple:
Giddy up. I’m pullin’ for you.