When Sabia Farag sang “America the Beautiful” without accompaniment Thursday at the women’s semifinals of the 2017 U.S. Open Tennis Tournament in New York, it was the latest highlight in a fast-moving career.
In the three years since she started singing in public, the 10-year-old Kailua girl has become a polished performer, songwriter and recording artist.
Sabia was one of 56 singers ages 7 to 14 who were invited to audition in person for one of 12 performance spots at the Open; it was her first trip off-island and she was the first singer from Hawaii to make the final cut.
Sabia, a fifth-grader at Hawaii Technology Academy, returns home today to a busy schedule of school work, singing, piano and ukulele lessons, preparing for the 12th Annual Duke’s Ukes contest at Duke’s Waikiki in October, and recording her second music video with Na Hoku Hanohano Award-winning record producer Pierre Grill.
JOHN BERGER: What got you started singing for the public?
SABIA FARAG: I did a duet with one of my old teachers and I was looking around at the people and I saw all the attention was on me. I liked the attention, and it was so fun I decided that I wanted to keep doing it.
JB: Who are some of the people who have inspired you as a singer?
SF: I really enjoy listening to Etta James, Carrie Underwood and Tori Kelly. Etta James inspired me to do soul.
My mom introduced me to a song by Etta James — “I’d Rather Go Blind” — and I was, like, ‘Wow! I really like that song,’ so I tried singing it, and then I found some of her other songs.
JB: How do you get into the emotions of a song that is about things you haven’t experienced yet?
SF: It’s like doing musical theater. I try to experience it in my mind and imagine what it is like and do the best I can.
JB: What’s the story behind your first professionally produced music video, “I Just Want to Do My Thing,” on YouTube?
SF: It’s the first song I wrote. It’s about a boy, but he doesn’t know it’s about him.
JB: What do you like to do other than performing?
SF: I really don’t have any hobbies. I’m not a sports person; anything physical I’m not interested in so I’ll pass on that! I like to bake sometimes with my mom, and I like to make slime with glue and shaving cream and eye-contact solution. Making slime, you can make a big mess and play with it all day. It’s just what kids do.
“On the Scene” appears weekly in the Honolulu Star-Advertiser Sunday Magazine. Reach John Berger at jberger@staradvertiser.com.
