Teenager On the Brink Of Fame ·

18 Aug 2024, 00:00

Taleen Kalbian may be perched on the brink of stardom as a versatile singer with a five-octave range. But she can still squeal like a teenager.

The 16-year-old from Centreville was riding in the back of a car in Abu Dhabi, where her family decided to dip her toe in the pop music waters by releasing her first single in December. It was there, in the capital of the United Arab Emirates, that Taleen experienced that seminal moment no musician ever forgets: when she heard her music on the radio for the first time.

"Ohmigod, this is so cool!" she yelped as her mother recorded the historic event on video. "I can't believe this, I'm on the radio, ohmigod. Ohmigod, I'm so happy! . . . That's meeeeee!"

The high-pitched joy hardly sounded like the sultry woman singing "Gotta Let It Go," which Taleen (who doesn't use her last name professionally) co-wrote and co-produced. The song thumps with the funk and sass of a Beyonce Knowles cut, complete with a male rapper and a breathy vocal that bears no resemblance to any teeny-bop singer.

"That sounds wicked to me," one admiring disc jockey in Abu Dhabi told her.

Taleen's Armenian American family has been careful not to overload the career of a girl who started out as an opera prodigy, singing for Pope John Paul II at age 12. But this week, they are in New York hoping to finalize deals that would sign Taleen to a major label and have her on tour in the Middle East and Europe this spring as the opening act for an established star, said her mother, Sylva Kalbian.

Meanwhile, Taleen is bouncing between recording studios, business meetings and voice lessons in Toronto, Northern Virginia and New York, recording 11 more tracks for an album. Instead of giving her over to the star-making machinery of a major record label, Taleen's family is financing the project themselves, they said, to prevent her from being pigeonholed into one genre and packaged for only one audience.

"She has developed her own image, her own style, her own songs," Sylva Kalbian said. "Now we're at a crossroads. We are looking for the right label, the right distribution. We've done all the background work that needs to be done."

Taleen's intelligence helps make her a participant in planning her career. "I'm hoping the album will do well overseas -- I'm releasing it there first," she explained. "Then get a distribution deal in the States, release the album over here and have it do well."

Beyond selling records, "I'd love to do a world tour and go everywhere and perform," said Taleen, who transferred from Flint Hill School to Oakton High School at the beginning of the school year so she could keep up her studies online while traveling. "And the publicity, the interviews, the whole package -- that's what I want."

Her gradual entry into professional singing has prepared the teenager perfectly. Taleen's mother, an independent business owner, and father, a lawyer, said they noticed their daughter's musical precociousness early; by age 5 she was taking voice lessons. At 9, Taleen began singing with the Washington Opera company at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. At 12, she sang the national anthem at MCI Center before a Washington Wizards game and performed the "Ave Maria" a cappella for the pope in Bethlehem and Jerusalem.

The two appearances before the pope were the highlight of her career, Taleen said. "And the single," she added, "hearing it on the radio for the first time."

Before turning 13, she belted out "The Star-Spangled Banner" at a Washington Redskins preseason game at FedEx Field. Taleen, still a small, skinny girl, finished with such a flourish that the crowd roared. Taleen's preteen exploits were chronicled in newspaper articles, including The Washington Post. As Taleen grew into her teens, she focused on school, making only a few public appearances. "We turned down so many things," Taleen said, including a White House invitation. "It was hard, to be in school, to have a normal childhood," Taleen said. "I think we handled it really well."

In April 2002, Taleen sang a medley at the annual Khalil Gibran Spirit of Humanity Awards Gala in Washington honoring Queen Noor of Jordan. The rock star Sting also appeared, later cracking, "Taleen upstaged me," her mother said.

The international star and the Flint Hill freshman hung out together that night, Taleen said, talking about Sting's old band, the Police, and about singing and style. As a result, she didn't finish her homework that night.

At school the next day, Taleen resisted the urge to brag, she said. But teachers didn't believe the "Sting-ate-my-homework" excuse. One teacher even sent her to detention, she said.

Last year, Taleen's family began shuttling her to New York to work with Don Lawrence, a voice coach who has trained singers such as Mick Jagger and Christina Aguilera. There, she also was introduced to various music industry professionals, many of whom were eager to help promote the budding singer's career.

Phil Berberian, a former music executive in New York with experience producing and managing artists, said he was knocked out the first time he heard Taleen in person.

"It was hard to believe that kind of emotion was coming out of a 16-year-old," Berberian said. "She can communicate with her audience -- I think that's what separates her."

Taleen's bubbly, youthful personality doubtless contributes to her appeal, whether she is singing for 80,000 people at FedEx Field or for 80 at Jammin' Java in Vienna. She said she feels at ease on stage.

"I know this is, like, cliche, but to see the different smiles on different faces, it doesn't feel like work," said Taleen, now a willowy 5 feet 7 inches. "The feedback that you get from the audience is different every time."

Songs like "Gotta Let It Go" are not for the Nickelodeon set. When she released the single in the United Arab Emirates, where her father sometimes does legal work, it made a serious splash.

A local magazine placed her on the cover, sandwiched between Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera. She did two concerts, combining pop and classical songs, appeared on the radio with wisecracking British disc jockeys, gave talks to two college groups and appeared on an all-business channel to discuss her career plan with a deadly serious anchorwoman. Taleen handled the appearances with poise and good humor.

Though only 16, Taleen doesn't want her audience limited to teenagers. "Normal people, they can't connect with Britney Spears," she said. "People are getting more and more into the serious, soulful artist."

Her musical influences are vast: She cites blues singers such as Etta James and Billie Holliday, hard rockers such as Metallica and System of a Down, pop artists John Mayer and Justin Timberlake, even rappers like Ludacris and Jay-Z, all incorporated into the background of classical and opera from which she started. An Armenian duduk, similar to a recorder, opens "Gotta Let It Go" before synthesizers and bass take over.

"I listen to everything," Taleen said. She calls her sound "musaique," a combination of music and mosaic, to describe her variety of sounds. "One song is almost John Mayer-like," she said of her album, "another song is a little urban, with R&B and pop. Another is a ballad with strings." The entire album is sketched out and should be done by summer.

Berberian said that for most artists, such a diversity of music styles on one album would be unsalable. But he believes Taleen can pull it off.

"We want this first effort to be a representation of all the things she can do," he said. "Most record companies would say you're crazy. But this is an unconventional situation. And I find myself thinking and doing unconventional things."

Berberian said Taleen was "very advanced as far as her ear, her production," and said she devises new ideas for arrangements or introductions on the spot. He applauded Taleen's decision to avoid a record company until the album is complete. "With a major record label, she would have no say," Berberian said. "This is going to be a lot better for her in the long run."

Marco Delmar, who is co-producing two other songs for Taleen out of his Recording Arts studio in Fairfax, said, "I'm fascinated by her material. Part of my job is to pull talent out of people. With her, it's quite the other way. It's a matter of seeing all the things that are coming at you and helping her make the best choice."

Delmar said Taleen has a uniquely bright future. "She's got a great voice, great creativity, and she's a stable person. I've seen combinations of those, but rarely all three. She's just a real joy to work with."

You can hear the first half of "Gotta Let It Go" on Taleen's Web site, www.taleen.com.

Taleen Kalbian of Centreville, above, rehearses for the recording of her first album at Recording Arts Studio in Fairfax. She calls her diverse style "musaique." Left, Kalbian is pleased with Marco Delmar's comments on her singing.Above left, Kalbian is flanked by Sting and Queen Noor of Jordan at the annual Khalil Gibran gala in 2002, where Kalbian sang. At right, Kalbian poses with Pope John Paul II in 2000 after singing for him at St. James Cathedral in Jerusalem.

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Teenager On the Brink Of Fame

Taleen Kalbian may be perched on the brink of stardom as a versatile singer with a five-octave range. But she can still squeal like a teenager. The 16-year-old from Centreville was riding in the back of a car in Abu Dhabi, where her family decided to dip her toe in the pop music waters by

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