Joelle James

Little Songbirds Seek Stardom
The Californian, February 27, 2003
By Agnes Diggs

Not one, but two local stars will be shining on Friday in the semifinal round of the junior singer category of the nationally televised "Star Search" competition.

Joelle James, 12, of Murrieta won in the first round of the three-round competition Feb. 19, performing the Aretha Franklin classic, "Think." She tied her opponent at 19 "stars," or points, and won by a point when the home audience cast votes on the Web.

Casting his vote, Magic Johnson, one of a four-judge panel, won Joelle's admiration, saying she had "soul and attitude."

In the second round, last Friday, Victoria Kelly, 10, of Canyon Lake, sang "Out Here on My Own," after which judge Naomi Judd said, "I think you're a hot fudge sundae with a cherry on top."

On Friday, the two girls will compete with each other and the winner of Wednesday night's round of competition to win the title of finalist.

Star Search is shown locally at 8 p.m. on delayed live broadcast from the east coast, hosted by Arsenio Hall. Four judges award points to each performer and the home audience votes online.

There is a catch in the process for the two local contestants, because the voting for the junior singer category takes place during about a five-minute period approximately between 8:12 and 8:17 ---- eastern time ---- at CBS.com/star, according to information from the network's Web site. Viewers in the Pacific time zone can't cast votes unless they do so before seeing the competition.

Joelle lives with her parents, Julie and Bill, and her younger siblings, Emily, 9, and Jack, 7. Performing is her idea of fun, she said, and she enjoyed the "star trip" that went along with her turn on national TV.

"All I know is I had a lot of fun," she said. "Kind of long days, but it was worth it."

Joelle, who began singing in her church choir at age 5, is a student at Thompson Middle School. Her favorite singers are Aretha Franklin and Mariah Carey, she said during her pre-performance interview.

In preparation for the show, she spent three days practicing and blocking her marks and suffering some sleepless nights, she said. "Star Search" was actually her second TV appearance. Earlier this year, she performed on "Showtime in Harlem," where, although she didn't win, she said she learned lessons that were helpful to her this time. She said she thought she would be nervous when her time came, but she got around that.

"I just thought of doing a performance in front of lots of people who love me," she said. "I became a different person and I saw all my family and I just did the best I could."

Victoria, a fourth-grader at Calvary Christian School, was accompanied to the show by her mom, Laura, and dad, Allwyn, a studio singer. Her brother, Noah, 6, was deemed not quite old enough to be in the audience, she said.

The family had lived in Murrieta since 1991 and moved to Canyon Lake the same day they learned she had been chosen for the show.

Victoria has been performing "since she can remember," receiving lessons from her dad for a few years and recently working with a professional instructor in Riverside.

Her mom recalled, "I've got tapes of her just walking around singing when she was (Noah's) age and its just been getting better and better."

Victoria's favorite singers are Mariah Carey and Rachael Lampa and her favorite actress is Jennifer Lopez, she said. She has performed in a few small competitions, her mom said, but the "Star Search" studio audience was about 200 people and then there were the millions of viewers. But Victoria said she felt pretty confident during her performance.

"I didn't feel scared that much," she said. "I couldn't wait to get home and see what my friends would say."

But it wasn't all fun and games for the girls. Both were required by law to attend school while on set to prevent them falling behind in their studies. There were rehearsals to attend, and more unnerving yet, they shared meals with the other competitors and got to know them.

"It's almost like you never want to go against them," Victoria said. "You're hanging out for like a week, so it's like if one of them wins, then you feel really bad (for the other one) because you've gotten so close."

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