There are parts of Drew Olivia Tillman’s life that make her seem like any other fourth grader, such as her love of roller-skating, her passion for Minecraft and the occasional sleepover on weekends.
But then there are other parts — the video of her singing Adele’s “Hello” that has more than five million views and counting on Facebook, the Broadway auditions — that make one thing abundantly clear: Tillman is not like any other fourth grader.
Not even close.
On Feb. 13, the University of Maryland got to know Tillman, who just recently turned 10, when she sang the national anthem ahead of the Maryland-Wisconsin matchup at Xfinity Center. Standing at midcourt and donning a gold Len Bias jersey, Tillman delivered a rendition of the Star-Spangled Banner that left members of the student section speechless and an entire stadium in awe.
Welcome to just another Saturday in the life of a budding superstar.
“That’s my first crowd that big that I’ve ever performed in front of,” Tillman said in a phone interview. “To see that many people, it just made me feel really good about where my career is going. I felt nervous, obviously, because it was a lot of people. But I had it in the bag.”
As soon as Tillman’s first note reverberated throughout the arena just before tipoff, those who filled it knew they were watching someone special. Tillman’s mom, Tameka, had a similar feeling during the first few years of her daughter’s life.
“My husband and I knew very early on that Drew was a little different than the rest,” she said. “Even as an infant, with the way she responded to music. She had a jazz CD that she liked when she was a few months old, and I would tell my husband that when I played it, she’d dance in her car seat.”
Drew quickly got started in music, and she credits her father as well as her aunt, Daphne Dunston (who doubles as her singing coach), as two people who were key in igniting her interest. But she was also adamant that, in some respects, it was just something she was born with. “It’s in my blood,” she said.
Aja Washington, an assistant director of marketing at Maryland who’s in charge of finding anthem singers, had been looking for a young, talented kid all year long to excite the Terrapin faithful. She has a list of contacts that she can call if need be, sure, but for critical contests, which the Wisconsin game was, she tries to find “the best of the best.”
That’s why Washington went after Tillman.
“I was on the couch with my roommates and asked, ‘Have you seen any kids in D.C. who can sing?” she said. When one friend brought up that “girl who was on T.V. and sang Adele that one time,” she searched for the video and was convinced. Immediately.
“We got her and booked her right away,” Washington said. “She’ll definitely be in our Rolodex, and hopefully she won’t be too busy for us in the future.”
With any young child who shows such proficiency with a skill like Tillman does with singing, it can be hard to find balance in his or her life, to make sure he or she “won’t be too busy” like Washington pointed out. In Tillman’s case, that duty falls on her mother, and while Tameka admits it’s difficult, she’s confident that Drew doesn’t feel too stressed yet.
“We’ve been able to really maintain as much normalcy as we could expect,” she said. “We do understand that a 10-year-old isn’t usually on TV or singing in front of 20,000 people at a basketball game, so we do realize that it is different. But it hasn’t gotten to the point where it’s overwhelming.”
Settling on a word to describe Drew, who is half the age of a typical college student and navigating a more hectic daily schedule, is tough. And her schedule is likely to get more hectic as she grows up, too — Tameka says Drew is looking to make a name for herself in all sorts of places, such as the aforementioned Broadway, commercials or major motion pictures.
For Drew, though, what she’s doing doesn’t seem remarkable or impressive like it does to those on the outside. To her, she’s just doing what makes her feel best and what she hopes to do for a long time.
“I always want to entertain when I grow up, because it’s really fun and it’s a privilege,” she said. “I can handle it.”