ChristinaMultimedia Presents: Christina Statistics

'Even when I was little, I knew I was meant to perform. I would watch specials on TV or videos of Janet or Whitney, and I would start crying because I was like 'I want that so bad!''

'Everything's really real, the marks along her neck. My mom had glove marks all over her neck from a fight. She was being strangled with an army jacket.'

'I think I crossed the street when I wasn't supposed to or something. My dad took me and threw me against the stairs, up the stairs.'

'That's why I think music was so important for me, I would go upstairs and I would line up all my stuffed animals and pretend they were my audience and sing to them. Close my door and escape it.'

'When I was five or six, I was living in Japan, where my father was stationed in the Army. At that age, I wanted to be Julie Andrews in The Sound Of Music. She was so free when she sang. That's what I wanted - to be on that mountaintop, twirling around. For me, the soul singing started when I was seven or eight. My parents split, and my mom and I moved in with my grandma in Pennsylvania. We used to go up into the city to record stores where they would have all these records of true soul singers like Dinah Washington and Billie Holiday.'

'My dad was in the military so I grew up all over the place. From where I was born in Staten Island, New York to San Antonio, Texas. I also spent three years living in Japan, New Jersey, places like that. My hometown for my teen years is, I guess, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.'

'I remember when I was about eight, running down the stairs, looking under the tree and finding that Barbie Kitchen I wanted so badly. That was my coolest Christmas memory.'

'My work meant that I was away from school a lot or that I didn't have time to mix with other kids and because of that I always felt like I didn't fit in. As I got older I became aware that I made other kids uncomfortable, but that just pushed me to work harder at my singing. I always knew that would be my path in life.'

'I would want to be outside playing baseball one minute and be on-stage the next. But a lot of times the other kids didn't allow me to do that because they kind of felt alienated from me and what I was doing. The truth is, I felt alienated from them. It was a whole sticky situation and it was really, really hard for me to adjust because I just didn't know who my true friends were. There was a lot of backbiting, and I realized that a lot of people didn't want me to succeed. So to curb everything, when I was at school with my friends, I just stopped talking about which auditions I was going on and what jobs I was getting, because I didn't want to feel the stress. I would try to keep it to myself. I had to deal with a lot of hurt - and I fell down a lot of times. But those bad times helped my determination and made me want to be successful even more.'

'I was raised by my mom and my grandma. They were supportive 100 percent about what I wanted to do. They were always saying, 'Now, there will be people who try to do this to you or that to you.' Even in my hometown, it was hard to find out who my real friends were because of the celebrity thing. But my mom was always like, 'This is going to your head! We're cutting off the singing!' So it was a very grounded situation.'

'It hit hard in elementary school, Kids would ask me to sing. If I said okay, they'd say, 'She's showing off.' If I didn't do it, they'd say, 'She's so bigheaded'.'

'The only way I was able to bring myself out of all that negativity was to lock myself in my room and sing.'

'My parent's divorce and hard times at school, all those things combined to mold me, to make me grow up quicker. And it gave me the drive to pursue my dreams that I wouldn't necessarily have had otherwise.'

'It wasn't a good marriage, I don't know what happened, but when all you hear are arguments, you know it's not a good thing. And though I wasn't one of those kids who blamed themselves for the breakup, growing up in that type of environment did contribute to me being introverted. That's why singing was such a release for me. It was a big deal to be able to sing, to let out all those stressful emotions and get lost in another (better) one.'

'As soon as Star Search happened, a lot of my mom's old friends, other parents, wouldn't talk to us anymore, sometimes teachers made it difficult because I would be out with the flu, and I would return to school and the teachers would be like, 'Oh, she wasn't out sick; she was out singing somewhere.' Even harder was feeling alienated from the other girls at school. I would make one friend and these girls would steal (her) away. It was tough.'

'My elementary school days were miserable. I even had to switch elementary schools after Star Search, the jealousy got really bad that our neighbours slashed our tyres.'

'Singing was my escape and I used it to get always from all of the bad energies in my life, I wasn't one of those kids who blamed themselves for the breakup of their parents marriage, I was always smart enough to know that it was their problem, but of course I was unhappy that they were breaking up. I didn't want my dad to leave - when he did I felt very unsettled. I guess I used singing as a way of dealing with that.'

'I love to perform live and the crowd in Transylvania - it was an outdoor event. I was 16 years old and participated in a contest called the Golden Stag Festival and it's in Transylvania, and so I went to Dracula's castle. He was a real guy, you know. So I'm on stage and it's a whole outdoor event, and it was really beautiful and there were thousands of people. And the energy was so great that I dove out into the audience and ran out to the crowd for my second number and was on this guy's lap and singing to him, and I was so caught up and had to run back on stage, and it caused mayhem.'

'As you may know, I just graduated high school, so I'm proud of that. That's one of my accomplishments this year. Right now I'm playing it by ear. I'm going to ride this amazing trip that I'm taking in my career that seems to be blowing up... all the way. And college is something I want to do but probably not major in music, but maybe psychology or something that I was interested in.'

'It's a whole growing and learning experience, to understand my background and where I came from, and just continue to go further.'

'I'm growing up, and getting vocal about what I want to do.'

Question: You and your mother were beaten by your father. You dedicate a song, called 'Oh Mother' to your mother, Shelly.
Answer: 'Yes, I wanted to make a song about the dreams she had of her marriage, which became a nightmare. In this song I thank her for saving us from the abuse. I really admire my mother that she had the strength to get us out of there and never returned back to him.'

Question: Do you have a relationship to your father?
Answer: 'There is no reason to have one! I think, you have to deserve and work for a relationship – and he never did anything for that. So why should I get in touch with him?!'

Question: Did you have to go to a therapy because of your childhood?
Answer: 'I went to a therapist to talk about the abuse. I think that helped me a lot. Sometime after, I stopped the sessions and started talking to my friends. I always talk myself free, so that nothing lies heavy on my soul.'

Source: Bild De T-Online