 She’s got the music in her: Centennial’s Merché Moore sings at national conference
By Carole Robinson, staff writer
crobinson@williamsonherald.com
Move over Taylor Swift, here comes Merché Moore, a 17-year-old Centennial High senior who is surprising the Christian pop music world with her dynamic voice and her original style.
Merché began performing publicly at the age of 6 and since that time she has shared the stage with gospel greats, opened for Nicole C. Mullen and joined the Veggie Tale cast on a two-month, 31-city Veggie Tales Rockin’ Tour Live when she was 13.
The teenager recently returned from Washington, D.C., where she performed the national anthem a cappella at the Jobs for American Graduates National Student Leadership Conference. Weeks earlier, Merché competed against students from 32 states, the Virgin Islands and Great Britain for the opportunity to sing at the conference.
“I met other students from around the country,” Merché said. “Everyone there was chosen as leaders. It was really meaningful to be in an environment with students who are potential leaders and learn about what they do with their lives.”
Merché – or Ché, as she is known to Glenn, her father – began developing her musical talent at the age of 3 by singing along to one of the family’s John P. Kee CDs, using a hairbrush for a microphone and her mother’s suede shoes as her costume, said her mother, Angelia.
“She would sing the whole CD,” said Angelia, who works for the United States Post Office.
On a trip to Captain D’s Restaurant when she was about 5, Glenn listened while his little girl sang along with the CD in the car and realized his she was actually singing every word of the songs she was mimicking – and singing them well, so he decided to introduce her to other artists like gospel singers CeCe Winans and Yolanda Adams.
The first introduction was the CeCe Winans’ song “Still I Rise.” He gave her a week to learn it. Merché learned it in three days and, “She nailed the song,” said Glenn, a former General Motors employee in Spring Hill who soon will be commuting to the GM plant in Lansing, Mich.
Once Merché mastered tunes by CeCe Winans, an alto, Glenn said he wondered if she could also sing Yolanda Adams, a soprano. She nailed those songs, too as she continued to perform at home and at family events.
Merché’s first non-family performance was at a church in Columbia. She was 6 years old and left the audience in tears with the sweet clarity and innocence of her voice.
“Folks went crazy,” he said.
Each time Merché performs she leaves the audience amazed at the volume that comes out of her small frame, Glenn said.
By the age of 7, Merché was writing her own songs turning poetry to music and she continues to write songs about things familiar to teens; school, parents, growing up, relationships and life.
“I do it because I really love music and I like to write,” she said. “ I write songs and I write poetry. I like the fact other students my age like my music. They can understand and identify with what I’m saying.”
By the time Merché was 10, she had compiled several original pieces good enough to be professionally burned onto her first CD.
“I remember when the CD came out we would go to Burlington Coat Factory (parking lot), pop open the trunk, she would do a song and I would hand out CDs,” Glenn said.
Since that time, Merché has released three other CDs and created a compilation of songs for MySpace.
When she was 13, Merché was chosen as the youngest cast member to join the Veggie tales 2005 Rockin’ Tour Live. She sang four songs and got to “do a little acting and dancing,” on the tour.
In October, at the recommendation of a Centennial High School teacher and unbeknownst to her parents, Merché auditioned for the Washington, D.C., conference.
“I didn’t think anything of it,” she said and added she knew her parents would be disappointed for her if she wasn’t accepted.
Three weeks after she sent in her audition tape, she was one of the three finalists – then she told her parents. The following week she was notified she had been chosen to go to Washington.
“I was surprised!” she said humbly.
As she works through her senior year of high school and fills out college applications, she continues to write songs.
“I write all the time – I’m always thinking of new ideas,” she said.
She is considering majoring in music business, and in case her singing career doesn’t take off, is also considering going on to study music business law, “so I can help other young people.”
“I definitely want to continue with singing, but if it doesn’t work out, I have a backup plan – anything in music,” she said. “But I still want to sing forever.”
Carole Robinson can be contacted at crobinson@williamsonherald.com
Posted on: 12/10/2009
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