Bria Kelly BIO (for YAF – Nov 2009 Featured Artists of the Month)
Bria Kelly is a 13-year-old Hampton Roads native and honor roll student who has been singing professionally since she was 11.
Bria started her singing career in March 2007 by performing our National Anthem for the Norfolk Admirals. She has performed the Anthem locally for not only the Admirals, but also for the Norfolk Tides, the Air Force and Navy (including aboard the USS Dwight D. Eisenhower (CVN-69)), and the Richmond Renegades. In 2007, she won the annual Philadelphia Eagles’ National Anthem competition, and later performed the Anthem for 45,000 Eagles & Jets fans at an NFL football game in Philadelphia. In 2008, she performed for the Washington Redskins at their 47th Annual “Welcome Home” luncheon, and in 2009, she performed for the Baltimore Orioles. She has performed the Anthem at large venues featuring Miranda Lambert, Travis Tritt, Taylor Swift / Rascal Flatts, Rodney Atkins, Tracy Lawrence, Heidi Newfield, REO Speedwagon, Darius Rucker, and Sara Evans. In all, Bria has performed the Anthem over 39 times to a combined audience of over 230,000 people!
Bria has been a guest performer with the Grant Austin Taylor Band, singing at venues in the local area, in Richmond and on the Eastern Shore of Virginia. Bria performed in a music video of one of Grant’s songs (Make This Love Last), which was selected as a top-64 entry for CMT.COM’s Music City Madness competition for 2008, and which is still featured on their site as one of their favorite “honorable mentions” of past competitions.
Bria won a Colgate Country Showdown contest in Altavista, VA in June, 2009 (she had to travel there because of local age restrictions). She did not win at the State Finals due to having strep throat.
Bria is writing original songs, playing the guitar and is currently the lead singer in The Bria Kelly Band. She and two other members of her band recently opened for Miranda Lambert at NAS Oceana, and for The Carter Twins at a local sports grill. She and her band have performed at the Isle of Wight County Fair, the Virginia State Fair and at Suffolk Peanut Fest. She performed solo at Nashville’s Cadillac Ranch night club in December 2008 and also with a band during CMA Music Fest 2009. Bria has appeared on TV, both on a Nashville TV show, Nashville Spotlight, and locally on WTKR-TV regarding her Philadelphia Eagles performance. She has performed for Relay For Life, and for other civic and charitable groups and associations.
Upcoming performances:
She will sing the National Anthem for the commissioning of our nation’s newest nuclear submarine, the USS NEW MEXICO (SSN-779) sometime in early 2010. She and her band will open for country artist Craig Morgan at Little Creek Amphibious Base in March 2010, and will headline Henrico County’s Kidfest festival in May 2010.
