Anthem by Ariel: South Fayette resident performs at PNC Park
Ariel Radinovic, performing under her stage name as Ariel Cameroe, lights up the scoreboard prior to the July 17 game at PNC Park.
Ariel Radinovic, who performs as Ariel Cameroe, will be a freshman at South Fayette Township High School.
Ariel Radinovic sticks around for the July 17 game, enjoying the Pittsburgh Pirates’ 4-2 win over the Milwaukee Brewers.
If you ask her how long she’s been singing, Ariel Radinovic starts before the beginning.
“When my mom got her ultrasound of me, she didn’t want to know if I was a boy or a girl,” the South Fayette Township resident explained. “The doctor said, ‘I won’t tell you if it’s a boy and a girl, but it’s either a talker or singer, because that mouth has not stopped moving the entire scan.'”
Ariel, 14, has gone on to fulfill the obstetrician’s prediction by developing vocal talents that have served her well so far, most recently singing “The Star-Spangled Banner” to open the Pittsburgh Pirates’ July 17 game at PNC Park.
The opportunity came after she won the annual “Oh, Say Can You Sing?” during Piratefest in December. Ariel was the sixth out of 10 finalists to perform for judges who included Pittsburgh manager Clint Hurdle and pitcher Trevor Williams.
“Each judge gives you a score of 1 to 10,” she said. “I got a perfect score, and then it was just waiting for the last four people to go, because if somebody else tied with me, we would have to do a sing-off.”
She’d actually honed her “Star-Spangled Banner” skills to start several Pittsburgh Riverhounds soccer games at Highmark Stadium, wowing the crowds with her ability to hit the song’s wide range of notes.
“It was definitely a challenge at first,” she recalled. “But as I sang the anthem more and more, I got more comfortable with it.”
Even though no one else in the Radinovic family – her mother, Wendy, included – is particularly adept at carrying a tune, Ariel developed an interest early.
“I’ve been singing around the house since I can remember. My mom will always say, ‘Ariel, just stop singing. I need to concentrate.’ Then 10 seconds later, I’ll forget and start singing again. And she’ll have to keep reminding me, because it just comes naturally. I always have a song in my head.”
She parlayed her passion into group and then private voice lessons, and she entered her first competition, St. Barnabas Charities’ Kean Quest Talent Search, when she was 10. The event marked the first time she used what has become her stage name: Ariel Cameroe, a creation that came about during a rainy-day school recess.
“My friends and I were making album covers for me, and possible song ideas,” she recalled. “It was just a name that we came up with to enter this competition, just in case something went wrong or I was embarrassed, it wouldn’t actually be me.
“Actually, the opposite happened,” she continued. “I went from preliminaries to semifinals to finals, and was audience choice winner for the semifinal.”
That came as a revelation to Mom.
“We entered this competition because I was paying for lessons, and a 10-year-old really doesn’t have anywhere to sing,” Wendy Radinovic said. “That was the only reason to do it. I didn’t know she was that good. That’s when we found out she was really that good.”
Ariel, who will be a freshman at South Fayette Township High School, continues to work on her singing through lessons at Higher Voice Studio in Carnegie and participation in the Pittsburgh CLO Academy for the performing arts. Among other accomplishments, she has played Belinda Cratchit in the CLO’s “A Musical Christmas Carol,” and she is in the cast of Little Lake Theatre’s “Schoolhouse Rock Live! Jr.,” which runs from July 26 through Aug. 12.
Her family members continue to support Ariel’s musical endeavors and aspirations as she continues to impress audiences.
“People will tell me, ‘She gave me chills. She took my breath away. I was in tears,'” Wendy said. “I just think that’s huge.”