VARIOUS: 13-year-old Elton John protege Tallia Storm lives up to her name.

Record ID: 480472

  • Title: VARIOUS: 13-year-old Elton John protege Tallia Storm lives up to her name.
  • Date: 31st July 2012
  • Summary: LONDON, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM (RECENT - JUNE 15, 2012) (REUTERS) STORM BEING INTERVIEWED WITH SKYSCRAPERS IN BACKGROUND (SOUNDBITE) (English) SCOTTISH SINGER TALLIA STORM, 13, SAYING: "My dad's a jazz pianist so I'd come home and they'd always work. So he would come home and play piano. He wouldn't come home and play X-Box, he'd play piano so I'd always sing with him."
  • Embargoed: 15th August 2012 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: United Kingdom
  • Country: United Kingdom
  • Topics: Arts
  • Reuters ID: LVACN0EXTT2QQ44DJB9M3YGHEORA
  • Story Text: From a virtual unknown to opening for Elton John, and fast becoming a red carpet favourite, 13-year-old Scottish singer Tallia Storm's star is quickly rising -- all without even releasing an album yet.


    Tallia Storm may not be a household name yet, but she is fast living up to her namesake, coming out of nowhere and stirring up talk in her wake.
    The 13-year-old Scottish R&B/soul singer seized the opportunity of a lifetime while on holiday in the same hotel as one of her idols British singer Elton John and his partner David Furnish.
    One morning as Furnish was sitting with other guests at breakfast, the pre-teen jumped at the chance to give him her demo tape in the hopes he would pass it onto John.
    The next day she received a call from the "Rocketman" himself, asking her to open for his show in Falkirk, located some 30 miles west of the Scottish capital Edinburgh.
    Storm, without hesitation, said an emphatic "yes".
    Before a crowd of 17,000 people in Falkirk Football Stadium, Storm took to the stage singing three songs including her own "Vampire Night".
    A week after her performance, she said her parents and even she couldn't believe her fate.
    "They're still shocked (on how her parents reacted). I think they were surprised I did it, I mean 17,000 people, I mean I'm surprised I did it to be honest," Storm told Reuters Television.
    Storm, whose outlandish, colourful style and youth belies her sultry jazz voice, sounds similar to her idols Erykah Badu, Jill Scott or Sarah Vaughn.
    All this without a single singing lesson.
    She learned from an early age she could sing and was having a jazz pianist father, Sascha Hartmann, certainly helped.
    "My dad's a jazz pianist so I'd come home and they'd always work. So he would come home and play piano. He wouldn't come home and play X-Box, he'd play piano so I'd always sing with him," she said.
    Like Beyonce, whose road to stardom was in-built within her family which, when starting out, included her father as her manager and mother as stylist, Storm counts on her kin for career development and support.
    Her sister is her unofficial stylist and her mother runs a successful public relations company, whose clients include, amongst others, the Scottish Fashion Awards.
    Despite this, Storm says her parents keep her in check.
    "Living with my mum and dad, they wouldn't let me step out of line. If you'd met my mother, she's not strict but she knows the way to go. I mean, of course, you hear about all these divas and I've always said I wanted to be a singer," she said.
    Storm is certainly developing on the fame horizon, with her unique and playful style being recognised even by those who don't know her, as was the instance in her interview with Reuters.
    Still, her idol and mentor John gave her sound advice.
    "He's (Elton John) given me a lot of advice through the phone calls and the most important one is, there's no rush, to enjoy myself and this is an experience of a lifetime. You've just got to enjoy it because it just might not happen again and just go with it," she said.
    Storm is certainly having fun, turning up to the red carpets for the Scottish Fashion Awards, rubbing shoulders with British male model David Gandy and fashionista Alexa Chung.
    She's also appeared in Teen Vogue, fashion magazine NYLON, and recently named a blogger for news website the Huffington Post.
    "I mean, whatever's going to happen as long as they (parents) know I tried my hardest and as long as I know whether or not when I'm 20, I know that when I was 13, I tried my best and just go with it," said the teen.
    Storm, who's maintaining her studies in school while pursuing her lifelong ambition, hopes to release her debut album soon, produced by none other than her father.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2012. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
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