Name: Aja9
Age: 13
Hometown: Toronto, Canada
Rising pop star Aja9 took the pitch before Friday night’s matchup between the New York Red Bulls and Toronto FC to sing the National Anthem. It was something she’s been practicing for practically her entire life.
“I’ve been singing since I was a baby,” she said
Aja9 burst onto the scene when she won Perez Hilton’s ‘Can You Sing’ cover song competition at just 10-years-old.
“My singing coach entered me without me knowing when I was at sleepover camp,” she said of the competition.
Boasting over 3,000 subscribers on YouTube, Aja9 posts covers and original songs to her channel, garnering hundreds of thousands of views.
“When I was younger, I used to post videos of me singing in my room,” she said. “When I won the cover competition, I started to do more covers [and post them to YouTube].”
The singer belted out both the American National Anthem as well as the Canadian National Anthem. And though she can sing “O Canada” in both English and French, the English version was heard at Red Bull Arena on Friday night.
The Canadian said she was “a little bit nervous” about singing the Star Spangled Banner.
“The American anthem is a challenging song,” she said. “My family, they help me, they support me. They tell me I can do it and that makes me feel better.”
Aja9 currently has a Top 5 song on Radio Disney and can be followed on social media on YouTube, Twitter and Facebook.
