— by Alyssa Rashbaum, with reporting by Matt Paco
At just 12 years old, singer Tiffany Evans has won a "Star Search" competition, performed on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" twice, appeared on a television show and won a part in a major motion picture. Her next step toward entertainment-world domination? Sweeping the Grammy Awards.
Over the next five or 10 years, the Bronx, New York-born Evans said, "I see myself winning 500 Grammys. I am not kidding."
Evans has been planning this since she was 6 years old, when she simply decided that she was going to be a hugely successful singer. With her self-titled debut album slated for a January release, and her career's trajectory heading from unknown to pop star, Evans has been cultivating this youthful optimism since she was just a toddler.
"I started singing when I was 2," she said. "Toni Braxton songs, like love songs and stuff. People are wondering how I could talk when I was 2, but my mother started teaching me words when I was 1 year old."
Though her childhood goals included working in the medical field, Evans knew early on that once she decided to pursue a singing career, she would focus all her attention in that direction.
"When I decided I wanted to be a singer, I said I'm gonna put everything away, the optician, the pediatrician," she said. "I just kept on saying to myself, 'I'm gonna be a superstar.' "
When Evans was 9, her family was forced out of its New York apartment and planned to move to Florida. As they were driving down, they stopped in Atlantic City, New Jersey, and Evans got her first taste of what it might be like to be famous.
"We stopped by the Tropicana," she recalled, "and inside there was the Tiffany Lounge, so I'm like, 'Oh my gosh, I'm already a star!' There was this band playing, and the singer was giving people the mic. And he gave it to me, and I said, 'I'll sing "I Will Always Love You." ' It was amazing. ... That was my very first appearance anywhere and singing out in public."
Evans' family settled in Atlantic City, and Evans visited the Tropicana frequently. There she was eventually introduced to a Columbia Records executive who told her that her voice was "a great gift from God," and sent her to audition for "Star Search."
After singing the song that became her good luck charm, "I Will Always Love You," Evans earned the chance to appear on "Star Search" and won the competition. With the momentum building, she secured herself a spot on the television show "The District," in which she acted opposite Craig T. Nelson, and then two appearances on "Oprah."
Evans now plans to return to the show for a third time to introduce her debut album, a series of covers of some of her favorite artists' songs.
A remake of the Stacy Lattisaw song "Let Me Be Your Angel," which was written by her producer Narada Michael Walden, will be the first single off the album. It's also the singer's favorite track and the one she feels she can best relate to.
"It's a type of love song," she said, "somebody talking about someone she has a crush on. She loves him to death. I like the song. It's very wonderful, and it expresses me a lot."
The rest of Tiffany Evans includes covers of Cyndi Lauper's "True Colors," the Jackson 5's "I Want You Back," and "Tomorrow" from the Broadway musical "Annie."
With her music career taking off, and her acting career burgeoning with a role as a young child aspiring to be a singer in the upcoming "Diary of a Mad Black Woman," Evans has her young hands full. But despite the ups, downs and mortifying moments that are inevitable in the early stages of any young star's career, Evans says she has never considered giving up.
"Everything has been going along amazingly," she said. "There was a point where I was like, 'How am I gonna do this?' Am I gonna quit?' But I said, 'No, get off that subject. I'm never gonna quit.' "
For more news, info and music from Breakout Stars check out "Spankin' New Presents Breakout Stars Week."
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