On August 28th, 2016, a teenager named Kevin Chen courageously sang on the Pine-Richland Highschool’s auditorium for his first singing competition. The contest was held by a Chinese organization located in Pittsburgh.

He is currently 18 years old, but his first music event was indeed unforgettable. He described his dream of music without slight hesitation.

“I really like singing. I want to be known throughout the whole world, that people will hear my music to be filled with strength. Let every person who is sad, who hears my music, to become strong and move forward. I enjoy singing all the fullest because it just motivate me to create something wonderful for others to hear,” Kevin stated passionately.

He also told the interviewer how excited he was.
However, there were many obstacles that he needed to overcome. One of them is Glossophobia, also known as stage fright. He described how he is “always been shy in front of strangers. Standing alone on stage with people I don’t really know shakes me.”

To overcome such a challenge, he controlled his own emotions and blinded his surroundings, stated by the man being interviewed. He had sang total three songs: ‘What Do You Mean’ by Justin Bieber, Chinese version of ‘I Believe’ by (original melody/music) Kim Hyun Sek (and Chinese lyrics by Jae Sun Yang), and ‘ 包容’by Jacky Zheng.

In the end, he received the place of 3rd. The result was extremely shocking, since he had never taken any music nor vocal lessons, he said.

“On stage, I imagined myself being unique. I was the only one on stage and it frightened me to think about what people think of me. My expression, my voice, my appearance, everything. I was overthinking it, in the end, I’m just another human being,” he stated.

Kevin was scared, but his passion for music had overcome the fear inside him. In the end, he was successful and free.

“It made me more open to society. Due to this, I tend to be more social to people. Although I would still be shy to strangers, but it gave me the vision to go up to them and become friends with him or her. That’s what I hope I can achieve, because the more friends, the better my life will be,” Kevin said before ending of the interview.