Tuesday, Oct. 16 2012 5:08PM
Try, try again makes reality (show)
Lee’s Summit girl finalist in contest for RCA recording contract
By Russ Pulley
rpulley@lsjournal.com
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ReprintRylie Brown is chasing her dream, getting closer and closer to grabbing that recording contract.
She’ll know now. We’ll know in November.
Last week Rylie was in Los Angeles participating in a reality show which will reveal next month who won the 2012 KIDZ Star USA contest. And the winner gets a deal with RCA.
The 15-year-old sophomore from Lee’s Summit, who attends Blue Springs South High School, is a vocalist working on a performance career.
As an independent artist she writes music and has three songs available on iTunes.
She also enters contests. In 2008 she entered a contest connected to Mylie Cyrus. She traveled to Texas for an X Factor tryout, got invited to boot camp, only to have that opportunity yanked back four days before camp was to start. The show’s producers said they’d invited too many people and had to cut some after reviewing tapes. She got a call back for The Voice, but still it was other artists who moved ahead.
Rylie said got interested in a performing career when she was 6, participating in a pageant. She sang for the talent portion of that competition.
Lori Brown, her mother, said her daughter had gotten stronger as each contest created hope and disappointment. Now, she said, her daughter is determined to become a professional and so continues seeking avenues for creating an audience.
“It’s just a part of our lives now,” Lori Brown said.
This attempt started by submitting a 90-second video on the Internet to the 2012 KIDZ Star USA contest.
To see her video go to: http://www.kidzbop.com/kid-
zstarusa/2012/top8.
Rylie is one of eight finalists picked out of nearly 50,000 contestants, the promoters said in a statement. She and her mother were flown to Los Angeles Oct. 9 for the final rounds of the contest recorded as a reality show and returned on Oct. 12. The contestants worked with celebrity mentor platinum-selling recording artist Gavin DeGraw.
The contest promoters paid the air fare, hotel and other expenses.
Rylie can’t say exactly how it went; the results are to be kept secret until the contest airs on a web broadcast of five segments beginning in November on VEVO. The exact date hasn’t been determined, she said.
During the finals she bonded and shared with other young musicians as they faced the ups and downs of competition with fear and excitement.
“It was definitely a variety of emotions, definitely,” Riley said. “But the most fun I’ve had in my entire life.”
She said she knew since she was about 6 years old that she wanted to be a performer, after singing for her talent portion of a pageant.
“I feel very, very alive when I’m on stage,” Rylie said. “It’s something I see myself doing the rest of my life, as a hobby or a career, I hope as a career.”
Her mother, Lori Brown, said going to these contests has become part of their family’s lives now. They have to pay for their expenses to the first tryouts, but in subsequent rounds the contests pick up expenses. Coping with the earlier disappointments has made Rylie stronger, she said.
Rylie plays piano, ukulele and got a guitar in August.
“Guitar was overwhelming, she started with ukulele because it has one less string,” Lori Brown said.
Rylie said for performing she chooses country songs. She said she writes music too and has three songs available on iTunes.
But she doesn’t have a favorite kind of music. She listens to whatever suits her mood.
“I listen to every single genre,” Rylie said. “It’s like eating, you have to have a variety.”
