Childhood & Early Life
Bryana Salaz was born on August 25, 1997, in Orlando, Florida, USA. Her father, Edward Salaz, is a Colonel in the US Army.
Being from a military background, she had to change places every two to three years. She attended four different high schools between her freshman and senior years. She credits this constant movement and change of place for her easy adaptability to new environments.
Continue Reading Below
Career
As a child she was interested more in playing soccer than singing or entertainment. When she was 12 years old, her mother entered her into a singing contest for Army children in Hawaii, where her father was stationed at that time. Initially she was not interested in participating in that contest owing to her interest in sports, but she reluctantly agreed.
She says that though she was initially reluctant to participate in the singing competition, once she stepped on stage, she discovered that she not only loved singing, but also loved to be on stage in front of a crowd. After that competition, she performed on request at many venues throughout Hawaii. She performed at Don Ho’s Island Grill and at an event for Martin Luther King Jr. at Kapiolani Park. She also sang the US national anthem for an event of the D.A.R.E. programme in front of a 10,000 strong crowd. She started training her voice for singing under one of the best vocal trainers in Hawaii, Yvonne Iversen.
She started participating in singing competitions and won the ‘Lolani Talent Competition,’ in 2010. She also began to perform in musical plays. She auditioned for the musical play, ‘High School Musical 2,’ at the ‘Ft. Shafter Richardson Theatre.’ The director of the musical play was impressed with her talent, but she was too young for any of the roles on offer in the play. As a result, the director created an entirely new role for her in the play as ‘Jr. Sharpettes.’ Thereafter, she performed in several musical plays.
Her family moved to Atlanta, Georgia, where she continued to participate in singing competitions and perform in theatre productions. In 2011, she participated in the auditions for the TV show, ‘America’s Got Talent.’ She was selected and advanced to the Las Vegas Rounds.
In Atlanta, she signed up with the J. Pervis Talent Agency. She also started applying for auditions for acting roles. She landed a role in the film ‘Joyful Noise’ as part of a children’s choir. She also bagged a guest role in the television sitcom, ‘Tyler Perry’s House of Payne.’
From 2012 to 2014, her family was stationed in San Antonio, Texas. During this period, she signed up with a Dallas agency, ‘Kim Dawson,’ and Los Angeles agency, ‘Osbrink,’ for roles in television and movie commercials. Her major appearances were in commercials for the music themed video game, ‘Just Dance 4,’ ‘Capri Sun,’ and the ‘Bop It’ line of audio games by US toy company Hasbro. She also worked at the ‘SeaWorld San Antonio’ marine theme park as a performer. She was one of the youngest Level 1 performers ever hired at the SeaWorld San Antonio.
In September 2014, she auditioned for the seventh season of the American singing competition television series ‘The Voice,’ which is broadcast on the NBC television network and is one of the biggest singing talent competitions in the US. She performed the song ‘Problem’ by Ariana Grande in the blind audition round, and three out of the four mentors turned toward her. Only Pharrell Williams did not turn and afterwards spoke about it that the only reason why he did not turn was because he thought her voice would be much better used by the other mentors especially Gwen Stefani, rather than him though he really loved her performance. She chose to work with Gwen Stefani as her mentor on the show.
She was one of the best contestants on the show as acknowledged by all the four mentors and judges - Gwen Stefani, Adam Levine, Blake Shelton, and Pharrell Williams. In the next round, the ‘Battle Round,’ she performed ‘Boom Clap’ by Charlie XCX and advanced to the ‘Knockout Rounds.’ In the ‘Knockout Round,’ she performed ‘Heart Attack’ by Demi Lovato and advanced to the ‘Live Playoffs’ round. All her performances were praised by the judges and her mentor, Gwen Stefani, was confident of her advancing through to the ‘Top 12’ round of the show, but she was eliminated in the ‘Live Playoffs’ round in what was termed as one of the most dramatic and shocking exits of the season 7 of the show.
During her appearance on ‘The Voice,’ her father was transferred and her family moved to St. Louis, Missouri. After her exit from ‘The Voice,’ she signed up with a new manager, Michael Scott. According to her, she learnt to perform with a band under her new manager.
On June 11 2015, it was announced that she would be joining a girl band named ‘Sweet Suspense,’ which was formed by former contestants of the singing reality show, ‘The X Factor USA’. The band had planned to release their first single titled ‘Money’ but she left the band in September 2015, before the song’s release. In the same year she appeared in the pilot episode of the proposed television adaptation of the 1980 film ‘Urban Cowboy’. The series was to be made for the ‘20th Century Fox’ but Fox passed it over in December 2015 and the pilot remains unsold as of now.
In 2016, she joined the cast of the season 2 of the Disney Channel show, ‘Best Friends Forever,’ as Princess Daisy. She also appeared in an episode of the Disney Channel show ‘Bizaardvark’ in the same year. It was also announced that she would be reuniting with her ‘Sweet Suspense’ band colleagues, Celine Polenghi and Summer Reign, to form a band called ‘SNRG,’ but in May 2016, it was announced that she had left SNRG.
