Entertainment

Madison Taylor Baez Talks Music, Acting and Her New Role as Young Selena

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For most 9-year-olds, acting and singing means dancing and playing around in their bedrooms in front of a mirror with only a hairbrush to serve as a microphone and a wild imagination to make them feel like a true star.  For Madison Taylor Baez, however, acting and singing were hobbies that were taken very seriously, critically coached and turned into careers that are undoubtedly going to be remembered by people everywhere.

It is generally believed that people are born with a natural disposition for certain talents. This just may have been the case for Baez, given her ability to naturally identify her skills and work to improve them as a toddler. “I started singing when I was  2 years old,” Baez said. “And when I was 3 and 4, I would get my dad’s iPad and listen to all this Motown music — his 60s and 70s music — and I learned and listened to all the songs and memorized them. And I never stopped singing from [then].”

Baez’s father, Chris, who is also her manager, was the first person to recognize his child’s talent, and he said he knew that his daughter would be a “success.” Determined to see her blossom, he battled stage 4 colon cancer for six years while still managing his daughter’s career.

Madison Taylor Baez with dad

Madison Taylor Baez with her father, Chris, at a L.A. Dodgers baseball game.

“When people see that she’s so tiny, they expect a little girl’s voice,” Chris  said. “And then they hear this huge voice that she developed from listening to all the great singers of Motown, you know, Aretha Franklin, Etta James, [etc.].”

Learning the lyrics to her dad’s Motown collection songs was only the beginning, because when Baez was 7 years old, she did something that a large portion of the public will probably never get to do. “At 7 years old, I gave my first National Anthem performance,” the young performer said. “One day my dad came home from one of his doctor’s appointments, and he asked me [if I wanted to learn] the National Anthem. I said ‘sure’, [since] it was a new song. So, he taught it to me in 50 minutes, and [he told me that he was going to send] it into the L.A. Lakers. So, the next day, he came home with a Lakers jersey, and he said, ‘Hey, Maddie, you’re going to sing for the L.A. Lakers.’”

With this having been her first performance of the National Anthem, the child star said she was nervous, but she said she did not allow her worries to consume her. After that performance, Baez went on to perform the “Star Spangled Banner” at the L.A. Dodgers, the Harlem Globetrotters, the L.A. Galaxy, and the L.A. Rams games with crowds dubbing her as the “Anthem Girl.”

Madison Taylor Baez sings national anthem

Madison Taylor Baez sings the national anthem

At age 7, both her singing and acting career began to blossom.  She started appearing in commercials, which like her singing gigs, led to even greater opportunities. On December 11, 2018, Netflix announced that it would be featuring a scripted series documenting the life of the “Queen of Tejano” music, Selena Quintanilla, featuring Baez as young Selena.

The upcoming Netflix docuseries titled “Selena: The Series” will follow the life of the singer as far back as childhood, wherein Baez will depict Selena from ages 7 to 11. Baez says she is now a huge fan of  Selena after having to learn more about her.  Selena Quintanilla was a beloved Grammy-winning Mexican-American recording artist who was killed by the president of her fan club at the age of 23.

“I actually didn’t know who Selena was,” the 9-year-old stated. “But my mom and dad were huge fans of Selena. They told me all about her, and I fell in love with her. I looked at all [of her] videos, I watched the movie [about her], and I couldn’t stop listening to her. And I think I did two songs and [went to sing at] the audition. Then, I got the callback, and I did a different song and another different scene. Then I got the role.”

She says this role is one of the “biggest” that she has ever gotten. It is inclusive of both her acting and singing talent, and it is something that she is “most proud of.” Despite the  significance of the role, she felt comfortable taking it on because of the similarities that she and Quintanilla share. “Well, I wasn’t that nervous because me and Selena are really alike,” she explained. “We’re both singers, we both learned Spanish at the same age, both of our dads taught us how to sing and learn music, and we’re both performers.”

After learning more about Selena, Baez came to respect her even more. “I would say she’s an amazing performer,” Baez added. “Her fashion was amazing. She designed her [own] fashion, and all of her songs were amazing.”

Christian Serratos as Selena

Christian Serratos (l) plays the lead role as Selena Quintanilla (r) as an adult.

To Baez’s excitement, she had the pleasure of singing a few of Selena’s songs for the series during filming, which, according to her father, she “knocked out” the park. “Well, when she had to record the songs for Selena in the studio, the producer, who’s been in the music business for 30 years, looked up Madison before we went in there, and he was just excited to work with her,” Chris explained. “He was blown away. Madison had eight songs to record for the show — nine songs in Spanish and English — and she knocked out all the songs in a day and a half in the studio [even though] they had taken out a whole week in order for her to do it. He was blown away at how she went in there and knocked out the song, [with] very little editing.”

Despite a demanding performance schedule, Baez says she  has never lost focus on her academic studies. “Well, as a child, I still have to be in school,” she said. “So, when I’m acting, and I have to go to auditions, and when I’m performing, I have to take all my schoolwork with me. But my school is actually really flexible, and they support all that I do. So, they send me all the homework.”

During the filming of “Selena: The Series,” Baez was provided an on-set teacher that aided her with her school work. “On the Selena set, they had a teacher for me and Suzette (Daniela Estrada who played Selena’s sister) [named] Daniella, and she was our teacher on set,” the actress added. “Now, we have a virtual teacher because of [all that is happening].”

Aside from a teacher, Baez also has her mother and father in her corner to help her maneuver her life as a child star. “They’re having fun,” she said. “My dad looks out for me. He’s my dad-a-ger, and my mom [does] my hair and makeup.”

With such a strong support system, Baez has made plans to expand both her acting and singing careers. “I think my future plan is when I’m not singing, I’m going to be acting, and when I’m not acting, I’m going to be singing,” she said.

She has even set professional goals for herself that she hopes to achieve within the next five years. “I see myself having a huge career and a bunch of movies,” Baez asserted. “I see myself having a great time.”

The young superstar encourages others to “never give up, follow [their] dreams and do [their] best,” and with all of her success, this advice sounds promising for those pursuing their dream.

The Netflix series is set to be released in the near future. Although there is no official release date, the series is expected to be available for streaming this summer.

Avanti Tolbert is a freelance writer for Hers Magazine. She majored in Journalism at Georgia State University. When she is not busy writing, she enjoys shopping, catching up on her favorite shows and spending time with her precious daughter.

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