Singing from the soul

Andrew Glazer

FAIRGROUNDS -- Dressed in a Holstein-patterned costume, glitter

splashed across her pink face, the young diva shocked nearly everyone in

her audience when she belted out her first growling note.

“The cover certainly doesn’t match the book,” said Tom Shacklett, 76,

of Long Beach. “Her voice is awfully big for a little girl.”

The little girl, 9-year-old Brandijo Kistler of Costa Mesa, is used to

this reaction. Her voice is deep and loud. And when 4-foot, 7-inch

Brandijo squeezes her eyes closed, clenches her fists and struts the

stage, she projects the soul and emotion, if not always the perfect

pitch, of Cher, Aretha and Mariah.

“She feels it,” said her mother, Tami Jo Kistler. “Something takes

over her body. Her music teacher thinks she’s reincarnated.”

Brandijo said she hopes to someday reach the same level of success as

her idols, Christina Aguilera and Etta James.

“I want to get signed. I want to make it big,” she said after her

first solo performance, in which she sang her signature song, the theme

from “Fame,” “Misty Blue” and a song from “The Lion King.”

She’s on the right track. Brandijo knows how to connect with her fans

-- she autographed CDs, which she sold from cardboard boxes, after her

performance. She’s adept at delivering Grammy-worthy speeches. Following

her performance, Brandijo thanked her relatives, friends, music teachers,

arranger and of course, God.

She’s also developing a resume’. She recently performed with B-Real, a

member of the rap group Cypress Hill, on a local television news program.

And just last week, she got a callback from Dick Clark’s production

company. She answered a casting call at Triangle Square for a new variety

show, “Your Big Break.”

“She was so loud during the audition that the police came by and asked

her to take it down a notch,” Tami Jo said. “But the producers told her

to keep singing loud. I hope they didn’t get in trouble.”