 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
-Flipsyde
♥Love Movement♥
Two years ago, almost to the day, Chantelle Paige watched the news and wanted to help. Hurricane Katrina just roared into New Orleans and the pictures she saw were devastating. From her home in the San Francisco area, she took action. She built a page on Myspace promoting a benefit concert for the hurricane victims as well as selling relief bracelets with the proceeds going to victim aid. “My heart went out to everyone... that's why I chose it as my senior community service,” Chantelle said.
Her efforts took on an added boost when R&B artist Ciara saw one of her postings looking for help.
“Ciara reposted a bulletin that she randomly saw and I started getting crazy friend requests!”
Chantelle created Inspiration Paige solely for the charities she supports including Big Brothers/Big Sisters and continues to maintain it with help from her mother and friend Rachel.
Her Katrina site opened the eyes of a lot of people. During this time, Chantelle was also working on building her music career.
“I’ve never been a normal teenager,” she said. “Even while I was in high school, I was driving an hour everyday to San Francisco to sing with my vocal coach. I wouldn’t get home until late, just in time to do my homework and go to bed.”
In late December of 2005, she recorded her first single on her Myspace page. The result was shocking.
“I went to bed and woke up to see I was #2 on the unsigned artists list right under Tila Tequila (one of the perennial top artists on the site). Add requests starting pouring in at around 2000 per day. It was crazy!”
That number is now over a quarter of a million with fans young and old alike writing to the 19 year old star.
“I spend about an hour every morning reading through everything then depending on what I have going on that day anywhere from 1-5 hours commenting people back!”
With emails coming in at a rate of nearly 200 an hour, that’s a lot of reading and writing!
“It’s impossible to keep up!” she said. “But I try to respond personally to as many people as I can.”
That’s the new age of stardom in the internet world. Get a Myspace page, build your career and most importantly, interact with your fans. With all that pressure (I have trouble answering 2 emails a day), she doesn’t get stressed.
“That’s a flaw my mom hates, but I love! I definitely love all the support I get.”
While the internet certainly helped with her career, she does have the talent to justify her newfound celebrity status.
“I was lucky enough to get to go open for the Pussycat Dolls! I've also opened for Robin Thicke, Pretty Ricky and Bobby Valentino! I have an upcoming show for the San Diego parade with Jesse McCartney and Katharine McPhee!”
And her performances are getting her recognized.
“The other day a little girl came up and played a bunch of my songs that she had made into ring tones and I gave her a hug and said she was adorable. She started to cry! How cute is that! I was in complete shock though!”
And then there are the times you wish you weren’t recognized.
“I was flying to one of my Pussycat Dolls shows and my mom and sister were giving me a hard time because I was all bed head. Then we hear a few girls behind us go "that's the singer Chantelle right?" My mom turns and said "SEE!" So I guess I have to brush my hair when I get off an airplane now!”
Part of her success comes from her prolific songwriting ability.
“Lately, I’ve been recording about a song a week. Right now I'm just getting a solid 14-16 songs for my album! I've been lucky to work with some amazing people!”
There are about a dozen Chantelle Paige songs on the internet with about 50 more she’s done in the past year and a half. With all that to choose from, does she have a favorite?
“My favorite usually tends to be the last song I did!” she joked. I just did a song with Traxamillion, I LOVE HIM, and all my friends think it's my best song! I'll be putting it up on Myspace soon so you'll have to go check it out! I have several really good songs done by major producers, but they don't want them released until I'm signed!”
She draws on personal experience when writing songs and a conversation with her could end up in the studio!
“Gotta Let You Know, for instance, is a conversation that I had with one of my best girl friends while we were eating dinner. Obviously, I decided to make it into a song,” she laughed. “I was a little nervous to tell her and said I wouldn't tell anyone it was her I was talking about. Immediately after we played it for my friends and when they said they loved it she said, "it's about me!"
Kids reading this, take a page from Chantelle Paige. Ambitious and smart (she graduated high school with a 4.1 grade point average) she followed her dream and never gave up. And to think, doors opened for her for simply doing her homework. She’s talking with a few labels now so hopefully there will be a signing announcement soon!
DID YOU KNOW?
* Chantelle appeared in four films including Bicentennial Man and The Rock
* She auditioned for and got a couple of call backs for the role of Sharpay in High School Musical (Ashley Tisdale got the role)
* She was up for the role of Lorraine Baker in “Cheaper by the Dozen” (Hilary Duff got the role)
* She auditioned for the role of Hannah Montana when they originally were looking for an older girl. (Miley Cyrus got the role)