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Aldergrove singer has eyes on the 'Stars'

Jada McKenzie-Moore is only 12 years old but the Aldergrove girl is already making a name for herself as a stage performer.
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Singer Jada McKenzie-Moore of Aldergrove is a contestant in this year's PNE's Star Showdown, beginning Saturday, August 18.

Jada McKenzie-Moore is only 12 years old but the Aldergrove girl is already making a name for herself as a stage performer.

Jada has appeared in six stage productions, 20 short films and sings every weekend at the Richmond Night Market, where she is also the cohost. An impressive résumé for the bubbly youth but she continues to seek new avenues to explore her talents.

Among these new avenues is her entry into the PNE's Star Showdown, which begins next Saturday, August 18. This year, Jada has made the semi-finals of the talent contest, and aims to join the ranks of past winners such Michael Buble and Carly Rae Jepsen.

She has done well in other competitions, making the top three of the International Village Children's Talent Show, a finalist in the B.C. Junior Talent Search, and out of a field of 650 she made the top 40 of the Next Star competition hosted by YTV.

She also received word Monday that she achieved the top six of Virtual Next Star contest, sponsored by YTV. The Virtual Next Star winner is decided by on-line votes from now until August 24. The winner gets a trip to Toronto to see the finale, live, at Canada's Wonderland. (Here is the link to vote for Jada: http://nextstar.ytv.com/virtual_nextstar.aspx?vns=1434)

A video of her performance of "I'm a Star" from Hello Dolly has helped gain her success. This video and several others are available for viewing on Youtube.

She is one of 10 youths, aged seven to 12, selected for the PNE Star Showdown, and she plans to sing "Dynamite" from Ant Farm at the PNE's semi-finals. If she makes the final round she plans to sing "Wide Awake" by Katy Perry, featuring seven background vocals of her own in the backing track.

Jada and her family moved to Aldergrove from Richmond a year ago so that she would access to the arts programs at the Abbotsford School of Integrated Arts, and Langley Fine Arts School when she moves into her junior high school years. She is also enrolled at Kick it Up Dance Studio in Aldergrove.

She achieves top grades in academics but relishes the dancing, acting and singing aspects of these schools, and would like to have a career in musical theatre when she graduates.