PR-USA.NET

12-Year Old Halima Bleu (aka Nickayla Tucker) Inspires Crowd at Clifford Brown Jazz Festival

Congratulations to Tina Betz from the Mayor’s Office for pulling together a wonderful Jazz Festival. Even with the rain, the performers did not disappoint. Fans wished for more coverage on the event because it was absolutely an occasion not to miss. The youngest performer of the week, 12 year old Halima Bleu (aka NicKayla Tucker), part of the Inspiration for Excellence organization, was an inspiration to everyone.

To see such a young performer sing and belt out the Jazz Standards was a sight to behold. It rained all week and the concert was outside in Rodney Square. Miss Halima Bleu made her way to the Square in the rain and trampled through the mud to get to the holding tent. She soon found out that it was the wrong tent and the real hospitality tent was on the other side of the stage, minus the mud, with food, water and other talent. She mingled around the hospitality tent as performers performed and the rain continued. The MC introduced 12-year old Halima Bleu. As the crowd applauded, the clouds disappeared, the sun came out and Miss Blue was in her element, opening her segment by saying “music brings out the sun, thank you for having me.” She began with “A Tisket A Tasket“, singing her heart out about her “little yellow basket.” The crowd loved her. Her next song, so appropriate, was “I Believe That Children Are Our Future.” Dressed in her beautiful long green not-too-tight, body fitting gown (appropriate for a 12-year old), Miss Bleu told the adoring audience “It Don’t Mean A Thang if It Ain’t Got That Swang.” She said, “give it up for the band” as they continued to play the melody and folks continued to swing with the rhythm. The crowd was so into it, that they did not notice Miss Bleu leaving the stage. Before she was missed, Miss Bleu was back on stage with a pink tunic type dress, sparkling with sequins, silver shimmer stocking and ballet shoes. The crowd applauded and wondered how that change happened so quickly. Without missing a beat, Halima got right back into the swing, finishing out “It Don’t Mean A Thang.” As her band began to softly play “God Bless The Child,” Halima began to flutter like a smooth sailing butterfly, arms extended and swaying in the breeze, with a short ballet routine which guided her right back to the mic to start in a whisper, “Them thats got shall get, them thats not shall lose…..” The crowd settled back, relaxed and was comforted at the 12-year old songstress, giving Billie Holiday a run for her money. To bring the crowd mentally back to the Square and get their hearts pumping again, Miss Bleu broke into a scat, to the delight and surprise of the audience, a 12-year old doing a scat, which pre-dated her by what seems a millennium ago. And not to be outdone by the Nicholas Brothers, Miss Bleu incorporated tap, with slides and shuffles, into her own rendition of “T’aint Nobody’s Biz-ness If I Do.” As she made her bow and attempted to make her way off stage, the crowd broke out into such thunderous applause, chanting “Halima,” she had to come back. Her last song was “I Will Always Love You.” How appropriate. As Miss Bleu left the stage, signed a few autographs, the clouds opened up and showered the crowd one more time. Miss Bleu waved to her fans and made her way through the crowd.

Halima Bleu is not new to entertainment. She has been on Broadway (Young Nala of The Lion King), performed on Law and Order SVU, played July on the National Tour of Annie, and much more…….

NicKayla Tucker recently finished her run as Young Nala in Broadway’s The Lion King. Since then, she has been featured in the September issue of the American Girl magazine! In the feature, NicKayla along with other girls tell their amazing stories. A scan of NicKayla’s story has been added to the gallery. Check it out!

Thanks to Mrs. Tucker-Saunders for the scan!

We have quite a few video updates! The first video is of NicKayla Tucker performing on Good Morning America as a part of the Annie Broadway Tour! NicKayla and the other orphans are performing Hard Knock Life. There’s also a video of QT Jazz practicing for upcoming shows. She’s dancing to two of her songs, Boyfriend and Heat! The last video is of Dymond Jazzel performing at Tommy the Clown’s Battle Night in LA. She did pretty good! These videos can be found on the video page.

Dymond is also working on her first album. The album has been titled “Project Dym Piece“. Her tentative first single is called “Shimmy Shimmy“. Good luck to Dymond and her first album!

Thanks to CiCi, jazzy-j, and Ashley for the videos and updates!

The cast of The Lion King, which includes NicKayla Tucker, will be performing on the 2008 Tony Awards! The awards show will be hosted live by Whoopie Goldberg and the cast will be the opening act. NicKayla will be singing with the rest of the cast dressed as the baby elephant. Look out for her! The show airs tomorrow, June 15th, at 8 p.m on CBS. Hope you all can tune in!

Thanks to Mrs. Tucker-Saunders for the news!

NicKayla Tucker, is a talented, driven and compassionate 11-year-old actress, singer and musician, who loves to use her talents and abilities to touch the lives of others. She’s most well known for appearing in the Hurricane Katrina episode of ‘Law & Order SVU’ as ‘Nikki’ the younger sister of Keke Palmer’s character ‘Tasha Wright’, as well as appearing in numerous commercials. NicKayla has been singing since the age of two and is a 3-time-winner at the Apollo. In addition to performing, she is active in charity work, and each year does her own talent show to raise funds for the homeless.

This year the energetic star is involved in several other community projects including helping out in the Obama 2008 presidential campaign. NicKayla took the time to tell us why she loves to help others and what she is working on right now. Here is what she had to say:

Young Black Starz: In your everyday life, how do you embrace being a young African American girl? What makes you proud to be who you are?

NicKayla Tucker: I am proud to be who I am because I feel that, like most people, I do care about people and I do love God. As a young Black girl, I think about how I love my hair, my co-co skin and my rhythm. I definitely feel a strong spiritual pull toward Africa and the African people. I felt this very strong pull before I got the role of Young Nala in The Lion King but now I feel it even more since I’ve been exposed to African people, culture, languages, and songs. I feel that this Bible verse sums up what I feel as a young African-American girl.

“For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good
works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.”
— Ephesians 2:10

YBS:Are there any African American figures who have inspired you in any way? If so, how?

NT: Rosa Parks inspires me because I think that she was probably a very outspoken person like I am. I also think that she could’ve gotten up out of that bus seat and stayed quiet but she didn’t and she spoke her mind. I speak my mind about things a lot that I think are unfair and I believe that she just played a huge role in where I am right now.

YBS: Is there anything special that you plan to do this month in honor of Black History?

NT: This month I rallied for Sen. Barack Obama in Times Square. I am a strong supporter of Sen. Obama (even though I cannot vote) because I think he would make a great president of The United States because we definitely need change. Some people are saying that America isn’t ready for change yet, but one thing that I have come to realize is that America is not going to get ready for change and we can’t get them ready for change, change needs to happen and America is just going to have to adjust. I do respect Sen. Hillary Clinton but I personally do not believe that Iraq should have been invaded so why should I support someone who voted for it. I think that Sen. Obama would be an excellent change for America and he should be elected into office.

YBS: In what ways do you want your work and talents to reach out to others?

NT: I know that my talent is a gift from God, and that He intended for me to use my talent to bring joy to people’s lives. One thing that I really like doing is singing to senior citizens because I love to see the joy in their eyes.

YBS: What projects are you working on at the moment that you think our members would like to hear about?

NT: I am currently raising funds for homeless children, and I have been doing this once a year every year for 3 years. I feel that it is very important to give to people who are less fortunate than myself because I just think about all the blessings that God has given me, and every once in a while I have to say “Hey some people really don’t have any of these things.” I really care about other people and feel that they should have some material things too, because everyone deserves something good, and I feel great taking the time to think about other people.

To find out more about NicKayla, check out her profile HERE.