Welcome to the LaFORUM - Blog v.2
I hope you enjoy this blog. I will do my best to update it with all of the latest news on Miss LaBelle. For those of you who may not know a lot about Leah, I will start with a brief biography. Hope to see you here soon and often! Comments are welcome!
Enjoy!
Leah LaBelle, born Leah LaBelle Vladowski on 8 September 1986 in Toronto, Canada, is the only child of Troshan and Anastasia Vladowski. Troshan and Anastasia, musicians and immigrants to the United States, defected from communist Bulgaria during a tour of Western Europe in 1979 at the height of their success with the Bulgarian Pop music groups Sreburnite Grivni and Tonika. LaBelle graduated from Garfield High School in Seattle, Washington in 2005 and has applied for a scholarship to Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts.
LaBelle has been performing, singing and dancing, publicly since 1990 but marks 1993 as the start of her pursuit of a music career. In 1997, LaBelle won the Washington State Pre-teen Miss America Pageant and was 1st runner-up in the National Pageant. In 1998 she joined the nationally acclaimed Total Experience Gospel Choir and can be heard in several recordings with the group and as part of the Langston Hughes musical, Black Nativity over the following five years. In 2000, LaBelle was part of the WAM Network children’s reality show, Caught in the Middle and continued on the show for two seasons. In 2002, LaBelle won the Grand Prize at KUBE 93.3 Summer Jam Idol and was the opening act at Summer Jam 20. Headline acts included Usher, Nelly, Jermaine Dupri, Mario, Da Brat, LL Cool J, Busta Rhymes, Nappy Roots, and others. In 2004, LaBelle was a finalist on the FOX Network Series American Idol, placing 12th overall, out of over 70,000 contestants. In 2005, Leah LaBelle signed a management contract with Sixthboro Entertainment of NYC and recorded a demo with Grammy Award winning producer, Andreao “Fanatic” Heard.