She was called a total package by the judges of the Guyana Talent Search Competition more than once and the talented Nia Angelique Allen, one of the ten winners of the competition, has garnered a following of her own owing to her many power performances.
Nineteen-year-old Nia, who grew up in Lamaha Gardens, Georgetown, put on a show for each airing of the competition that became a treat for fans to look forward to. The Guyana Talent Show was her fourth competition, her first being when she was just eight years old. That competition, she said, was called Kidstage and she was already in it when her mother learnt that the only way to win was if the contestant paid.
“I vividly remember my mom saying, ‘If I have to pay for you to win, then you are going to lose today because I know how talented you are and I know I don’t have to pay for you to win’. So even though I was down about not winning, I knew that it wasn’t because I wasn’t talented but because the rules changed in the middle of the competition and that was something I had to learn from a very early age,” said the singer.
Her second competition was the GT&T Jingle and Song Competition in 2011 that gained her quite a number of fans. In fact, at the final of the Guyana Talent Search Competition, Nia opened her performance on the show with a video of herself at ten singing Tina Turner’s “What’s Love Got To Do With It”. She finished in the top ten of the jingle competition.
Nine years later, Nia competed in this year’s Junior Soca Monarch Competition. Initially she was hoping to compete in the Calypso Monarch Competition, but thought the date might clash with the Guyana Talent Search Competition and decided against auditioning for it. However, while the Junior Soca Monarch Competition was underway, one of the contestants dropped out but a song had already been written for the contestant and a friend reached out to her to be a substitute in the competition and she took up the offer and went for it. This was at the very end of the competition and unlike the other contestants, Nia skipped the preliminaries. She did not place.
In auditioning for the Guyana Talent Search Nia sent in a video of her doing a cover of “Perfect” by Ed Sheeran while playing the piano. With her boyfriend being skilled on the piano, Nia is just learning to play. She explained that she stuck to singing in the competition, however, because it was what she was best at.
The singer comes from a musical background. Her father was lead vocalist of a group called ‘The Arz’. Her aunts who live abroad are recreational singers while an uncle who has been dabbling in rap for a while is looking to take up a career in the genre.
While attending Starter’s Nursery, Nia shared, her teachers had found out from her mom that she could sing and she was put on the spot to sing a song there and then. She sang “When I Call On Jesus”. That was the first of many performances.
Given her background, Nia was asked whether she thought she was a frontrunner. The singer confidently said she knew she was a frontrunner and while she was sure she had what it took to win if there was only one winner, she could not say that she would definitely be the winner when those she was competing against were all amazingly talented. She acknowledged that she was in for stiff competition particularly from her fellow finalists.
“From the Guyana Talent Search, I gained a family. A lot of the people I met were really talented. For one, I can say that meeting them cured the dreary way this quarantine made me feel. I made some new friends and I also learnt a lot from the mentors like tilting up your head if you’re trying to hit a low note as opposed to tilting your head downwards, and learning things like exercising before performances including regular and vocal exercises like the ‘Me, Me, Me’s’, the ‘A, E, I, O, U’s’, and the ‘Mommy Made Me Mash My MM’ which is my favourite one to practice,” shared Nia.
Asked about challenges, the singer said the only one that stuck out to her was that officials or organisers in the competition made strong song choice suggestions, when there were times she felt that the particular song choice would not showcase her talent as she wanted. The contestants, she noted, spent a couple of hours every day practicing on their vocals and the songs they wanted to sing. During rehearsals, they would take turns performing their pieces while other contestants looked on. Nia laughed as she recalled she wanted her performances to be a surprise, but this could not happen as they rehearsed with their competitors in ear shot. As such, the singers went through their rehearsals but always played them down.
“My competitors knew what I was coming with pretty much and because of that I would do a dry run at rehearsals then on competition day, I switched it up. The song would be the same but the look and feel of the performance would be totally different. My mentors were kind of frustrated with me at first because of it. They were like, ‘Nia, you have to put your all into your performances.’ But little did they know I was taking into consideration my competitors. I didn’t think that my competitors would want to copy anything but just to be on the safe and more surprising side, I played it down until competition night,” revealed Nia.
Her favourite experience with the contestants was performing at the Flag Raising Ceremony commemorating independence. Nia shared that there were people who had school and work but they took time off to make the event as spectacular as they could with their performances. It was here that they really bonded. “Added to that, there was the amazing fireworks display; it was magical,” gushed the singer.
After participating in three competitions with no win, one would think Nia would have wanted to be named the sole winner, but the singer said she was delighted that there were ten winners and thought it was a wise decision by the Ministry of Culture, Youth, and Sports as it was a way to motivate them to keep progressing in their talents.
Having sat her CAPE examinations at Marian Academy last November, Nia is currently taking a break and hopes to attend college next year. If all goes well she will be attending Berkeley College of Music. Nia aspires to become the best all-rounder in singing, dancing, modelling, and acting. She is also a voice-over professional and has done voice-overs for a number of commercials targeting sexual abuse, for a COVID-19 advertisement and as the main character ‘Nancy Morgan’ in Nancy’s Stories (Nancy Story, Nancy Story – Boys Too, and Nancy School Daze). According to the singer she never saw herself as one who would grow up to work a 9-5 job and always knew that her talent would be what would generate an income for her.
Nia who grew up active in church and school has performed at many other events including at the opening ceremony for the Sorsha Williams Foundation. This year, she performed at the International Women’s Day occasion that was celebrated at the Arthur Chung Conference Centre.
Singing aside, Nia also competed at St Agnes Primary School pageant where she was crowned queen. She hinted that there may be a possibility of her participating in a pageant in the future but for now, she is focused on her singing career.
In her free time, Nia enjoys learning new languages and is currently learning French. She also knows a bit of Spanish and a tiny bit of Japanese. She also likes painting, drawing, and watching anime.
The Virgo singer took the opportunity to acknowledge her family and friends who have supported her through it all and said a huge thank you to her fans for believing in her.
Nia can be followed on Instagram @theniaangelique_, on TikTok @theniaangelique_ and on Facebook as Nia Angelique.
