“Growing up, I can remember singing along with my ma all of the time. I wouldn't say she necessarily 'taught' me how to sing, but she was definitely the first person to inspire me to sing and the first to intrigue me vocally. I've always had a natural ear for music, though.” FirstsPersonsI CanRememberNaturalGrowing UpGrowingInspireTaughtSingingEarsIntrigueFirst Person Author:Elliott Yamin
“Growing up, I had a singing teacher who was an amazing champion of mine who helped build up my confidence, and I also count my therapist as one of the best teachers that I've ever had.” Growing UpTeacherGrowingMinesSingingChampionTherapistsBest Teacher Author:Gideon Glick
“I can read music, but I have no technique, and singing was never an option even though I sang a lot growing up.” I CanGrowing UpGrowingSingingTechniqueI Can Read Author:Mark Morris
“One of my biggest inspirations growing up was Whitney Houston, so I was devastated to hear about her passing. I'm from East Orange, New Jersey, and started singing at New Hope Baptist Church, so she was like my fellow Jersey girl.” InspirationGirlChurchGrowing UpGrowingSingingFellowsEastPassingPassingsOrangeJerseyBaptistsNew JerseyDevastatedHoustonWhitneyNew HopeJersey Girl Author:Naturi Naughton
“When I look back at what musical theatre music and show music meant to me, first of all - more than anything - what it meant to me was work. As I was growing up, I realized that singing and performing was my strong suit.” FirstsLooksShowsStrongGrowing UpGrowingSingingMusicalTheatreI RealizedSuitsPerformingMusical Theatre Author:Jason Mraz
“Growing up, road trips with Dad were something I hated. Sitting still for hours, singing that stupid song, "100 bottles of beer on the wall. 100 bottles of beer..." Dad, you know, keeping up with the song.” KnowsStillsSongHoursGrowing UpGrowingStupidWallDadSingingSittingBeerHatedBottlesRoad TripSitting Still Author:Christopher Titus
“I started as a tap dancer in Durban, which is on the coast. That was an important part of growing up, turning on the radio in the morning and hearing Zulu singing or the news in Zulu.” ImportantMorningGrowing UpGrowingNewsSingingRadioHearingDancerCoastTap DancersDurban Author:Roselee Goldberg
“My parents aren't artists or anything, but growing up in Wales, especially in a Welsh language school and community, they have this thing called the Eisteddfod where people compete in singing and acting and dancing and oratory all sorts of things. From a very young age, it's been a part of my upbringing.” PeopleAgeSchoolYoungArtistLanguageParentCommunityActingGrowing UpGrowingSingingDancingYoung AgeUpbringingWalesOratoryWelshSinging And ActingSchools And Community Author:Iwan Rheon
“I grew up singing in Kansas. My dad had a band when I was growing up. So I sang in church and school and started singing with his band when I was seven. So I've been singing all my life.” SchoolChurchGrowing UpGrowingGrewDadBandGrew UpSingingSevenMy DadKansas Author:Martina McBride
“I knew no one in this business, and the only acting I'd ever done was in a first-grade play. I understood some of my talents - growing up playing piano, and my operatic voice led me to All-State in my first, and only, year of singing - but I didn't yet know all of my capacities. My parents felt helpless, as they knew nothing about this world and couldn't help me in any way except through pure love.” KnowsWorldWayYearsFirstsStatesDonePlayHelpingFeltParentVoiceActingGrowing UpGrowingTalentThis WorldPureSingingUnderstoodCapacityPianoGradesHelp MeHelplessPure LovePlaying PianoAll State Author:Idara Victor
“Harmony has always come very natural to us because we started singing harmony at an early age. We heard a lot of different music growing up.” DifferentAgeNaturalGrowing UpGrowingHeardSingingHarmonyDifferent Music Author:Petra Haden
“I was full of energy, and I had a lot of bottled up rage that would come out in my stage performances. It was therapy sessions for someone who couldn't afford to go to therapy, a way to release my frustration, my inhibition. When I was little, growing up in an abusive household, I felt like I didn't have a voice. Suddenly I was on stage and people were watching me and listening to me, so even if I was singing about something that didn't have to do with abuse, when I was on stage I could express all of the anger, the rage.” PeopleEnergyGrowing UpListeningSingingAbuseRageTherapyFrustrationAbusiveInhibitions Author:Alice Bag
“With Neptune City, I could have been singing about anybody's life that grew up where I did. The town I live in it isn't that magical, but when you're growing up, you think that everything is so important.” ThinkingImportantGrowing UpSinging Author:Nicole Atkins
“For me, the most gratifying part in touring is singing the songs that I know tmy fans love, it's those moments when they put their hands up and their heads down that you know that you have hit a nerve. It's those moments when the people in the audience say "sang". It's those moments that I'd listen to growing up, even on Donny Hathaway live, where the people were speaking to my Dad at the Troubadour and I used to wonder, 'wow, what are they talking about?' There's an electricity that cannot be rivaled when you are creating for people live and in real time.” PeopleRealMomentsSongWonderAudienceGrowing UpDadSingingMy DadElectricity Author:Lalah Hathaway
“That was the big thing when I was growing up, singing on the radio. The extent of my dream was to sing on the radio station in Memphis. Even when I got out of the Air Force in 1954, I came right back to Memphis and started knocking on doors at the radio station.” DreamBigsForceGrowing UpGrowingDoorsAirSingingRadioStationsBig ThingsKnockingAir ForceRadio StationsMemphisKnocking On Doors Author:Johnny Cash
“Growing up in Cleveland, I learned about singing from my mother, who had once sung professionally and who admired Mahalia Jackson and Aretha Franklin.” MotherGrowing UpGrowingSingingFranklinCleveland Author:Tracy Chapman
“We do not ask what hope of gain makes a little bird warble, since we know that it takes delight in singing because it is for that very singing that the bird was made, so there is no need to ask why the human mind undertakes such toil in seeking out these secrets of the heavens. ... And just as other animals, and the human body, are sustained by food and drink, so the very spirit of Man, which is something distinct from Man, is nourished, is increased, and in a sense grows up on this diet of knowledge, and is more like the dead than the living if it is touched by no desire for these things.” IfsKnowsMenNeedsMindHumansLittlesMadeBodyScienceSpiritDesireAsksHeavenGrowsAnimalSecretKnowledgeGrowing UpDrinkSingingBirdGainsDelightSeekingDietsTouchedHuman MindToilHuman BodyFood And Drink Author:Johannes Kepler
“I'd always been quite quiet growing up, and singing was a way of having a voice.” WayVoiceGrowing UpGrowingQuietSinging Author:Leona Lewis