It’s a scene many parents with preteen children are sure to be familiar with: a school gymnasium, repurposed from its daytime dodgeball antics, filled instead with parents and faculty. It could be a school talent show, or perhaps a jolly holiday festival, but the entertainment is typically always the same: singing, skits, etc. Parents should expect five minutes of bliss as their child takes center stage, followed by 55 minutes of muffled boredom as other parent’s kids sing “Mary Had A Little Lamb,” “Old McDonald,” and “You Are My Sunshine.”
School talent shows have always been more for the performers than for the audience – a way to give your child their five minutes on stage and let them live out their fantasies of being Beyonce, Ariana Grande, or whatever other performing idol is big with children nowadays. Knowing this, it’d be hard to imagine just how bewildered a parent might be if their child shared a talent show stage with Mia Negovetić.
Mia possesses the rare kind of powerhouse vocals (for a girl her age) that are normally reserved for big-budget reality TV shows. While watching Mia’s performance of Beyonce’s “Listen,” it was hard to imagine the setting wasn’t a televised stage with three C-list celebrity judges sitting – instead, it was an unassuming elementary school in Croatia.
The 11-year-old’s parents are both amateur musicians themselves, yet Mia claims she has had no professional voice training. Despite showing an incredible amount of talent, Mia has no plans of becoming a professional musician. She told Croatian media,
“I sing from the heart…Honestly, I would love to be a cook, not a singer. It seems to me that the singers spend too much time devoted to their career and do not have much free time. I would love to have a family someday.”
It’s been months since Mia performed at her school’s talent show. The video clip of her performance has gained traffic online, currently holding around 3 million views on YouTube. Mia, now 12, has been unexpectedly quiet since her rise to internet fame. Her YouTube channel hints at small local performances, but she’s seemed to avoid the television appearances, CD promotions, and large concerts that typically accompany a quick rise in popularity.
For now, it seems like she’s keeping true to avoiding the pop star life. However, if in a few months’ time you see her face popping up on the next reality TV talent show…don’t be surprised.
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