Lowe's a Rising Country Star

American Idol? X-Factor? Danielle Lowe, with her warm, engaging stage presence and perfect-pitch country voice, is easily as good as the top young contenders on these shows. But, alas, as a Canadian, the singer/songwriter doesn’t qualify. Regardless, the Edmonton high school student is too busy to watch others trying to launch their careers on TV.  She’s focused on growing her fan base on the Internet.

“YouTube is an amazing marketing tool,” says the surprisingly mature 16 year old, who records a video every few weeks to  upload on the site .  “We put a lot of energy into YouTube because we know that all the work we do right now will pay off in the long run.”

So far, Danielle has a subscriber base of 15,000 and growing.  According to her mother/manager, Vicki Lowe, Danielle now has the No. 87 most subscribed music channel in Canada. To put that in perspective, Justin Bieber, who was discovered on YouTube, is number one. In the top 10 are the likes of Michael Buble and Nickelback.

Ironically, while most girls who love to sing talk about singing when they learned to talk, Danielle didn’t have much interest as a child. In fact, her mother had no idea her daughter had a voice until she was filming Danielle’s kindergarten play and those in attendance kept talking about the voice that was belting out a tune. It was only when her mother saw Danielle’s mouth moving with the words that she realized who it was. 

A few years later, Vicki bought Danielle a karaoke machine for Christmas and was impressed with how well her daughter sang. On a whim, Danielle entered a  karaoke singing contest at the local community league. She won,  even though she was much younger than most of the contestants.. But her single mother still held off on expensive voice lessons until she was sure Danielle was serious about her music.  Danielle was 10 when she entered and won another voice competition. This time, she caught the attention of Wes Inaba, Director of Pure Artists.

“I don’t often approach potential students,” says Danielle’s now coach and mentor.  “Danielle didn’t have the best choreography and the rest was kind of all over the place.  But she had that one magical, golden note on top that just blew me away.”

Inaba now records and edits all of Danielle’s music videos on his laptop — about 30 so far. Although they aren’t as slick as the professionally produced videos you see on MuchMusic, they do the trick, capturing Danielle’s personality, body language and distinctive voice.  Danielle plays the guitar and sings the harmony voice tracks.  Some of the songs she performs are covers, but many are songs she has written herself, or with her mother. Her own songs are catchy and a few, like “Daddy’s Little Girl,” which she wrote about her father, are getting some radio air play.

Inaba has helped to move Danielle’s career forward in other ways as well.  With his  guidance and her talent and hard work, Danielle has earned major recognition.  Three years ago, she became the youngest singer ever to win the Grand Winning Act at the Northlands’ Country Vocal Spotlight. At Tennessee’s esteemed North American Country Music Association International competition, she won top awards for vocals, performance style and song writing.   

Charitable Endeavours

But what may be most impressive about Danielle is her commitment to use her gifts to benefit others. 

While all of Inaba’s students are expected to contribute to the community, he says of Danielle, “She is very exceptional because her passion for giving back is almost crazy!  If you look at her website, she probably has over 400 community initiatives she contributed towards.  And she thinks nothing of it, like it’s just what you’re supposed to do.”  

Danielle often goes well beyond just singing in a benefit concert or at a charity event.  When fire devastated Slave Lake on the eve of the party of her first CD release this past summer, Danielle committed 25 per cent of the CD proceeds to the foundation assisting families who lost their homes — and she collected donations of goods to help get them back on their feet. 

When she heard about the work done by Little Warriors, she was inspired to write the song “Jesse” about a sexually abused little boy. The charity’s founder, Glori Meldrum, was so touched that she commissioned a special Jesse doll. 

“I sang the song at a Little Warriors fundraiser and apparently a man there was so moved by the Jesse story that he took out his chequebook and wrote Little Warriors a huge donation,” says Danielle.  “That’s when I realized that music is very powerful.”

High School Hero

Danielle gives up a lot to establish her music career, often performing at several events in any given week.  It’s a major juggling act for the Grade 11 honours student, who doesn’t have time to participate in school activities or hang out with friends on weekends.  But she beams when she talks about the support she gets from her fellow students and the teachers at Louis St. Laurent High School. 

“They think it’s pretty cool,” Danielle says of her growing celebrity status.  “They always joke ‘you’re on the news every day.’  ‘No, I’m not,’” she smiles in a most endearing way. 

Two years ago, the school awarded Danielle with the Superintendent’s Award of Excellence. 

Meanwhile, Danielle’s star keeps rising.  She has just signed on as a Zui Star for Zui.com, an internet search engine aimed at kids 3-12.  As one of just 10 performers chosen from across North America, she’ll be promoted as one of the “cool upcoming stars of tomorrow.”

As always, helping her behind the scenes is her biggest fan, her mom.

“My mom is amazing”, says Danielle.  “She does so much for me from doing my hair and makeup, burning CDs, driving me all over the place for events.  Just investing in my career and being there for me. I wrote a song on my CD called “Dear Mom” for her.  I was so nervous to show it to her.  And when I did, she cried and then I cried.”

Danielle signs all of her CD’s with ‘Live your dreams’.  Hers is obvious.

“This is my life.  This is what I want to do”, says the humble and grounded teen.  “It's not about stardom to me. It's not about fame and fortune.  Just making music is my passion.”

Lesley MacDonald is the producer and host of the Global Woman of Vision series.  Stories can be seen the first Monday of every month in the News Hour at 6 p.m. on Global Edmonton and online at GlobalTVEdmonton.com