Texarkana’s Egypt Dixon, 18, perhaps better known as Aaleliah Dixon, will appear Sunday on ABC’s singing competition show Rising Star.
A 2014 graduate of Texarkana Options Academy, Dixon recently relocated to San Diego with her mother and brother to pursue a career in music and to pursue her dream. Dixon has performed across the Texarkana region at community and private events including Sparks in the Park, Four States Fair & Rodeo, DeKalb’s Oktoberfest, and Relay for Life.
Still, despite all her experience with singing in front of crowds, Dixon said she’s still nervous about Sunday’s performance in front of a national audience.
“Everybody gets nervous. It’s not normal if you don’t get nervous, but you have to learn how to use those nerves to the best of your ability to make your performance the best it can be,” she said.
Like a lot of people in her position, Dixon said she has always dreamed of making it big. “I never really thought I could make it out of such a small town so quickly, but now that it’s here I feel like I can do anything that I set my mind to,” she said.
ABC’s new reality series Rising Star reinvents the traditional singing competition reality show because the audience has the final say in who advances, all in real-time. The show follows a group of aspiring singers as they audition in live performances. During those performances, viewers vote via an App to determine if the singer will advance in the competition.
If the voting reaches a certain threshold, the performer moves on, and the performer can see how the voting is going during the performance, so the feedback is immediate – and dramatic.
ABC’s Rising Star made its debut this past Sunday with Josh Groban as host and Ludacris, Kesha and Brad Paisley as the celebrity experts. To set itself apart from other singing competitions, the show relies on its unique voting method.
If a contender gets a 70% approval (the celebrity experts each have 7 percent of the vote), they’re cleared to stick around.
For more details about Rising Star and the voting App click here: http://abc.go.com/shows/rising-star. The show airs at 8 p.m. Sunday.
