User:Virginia™/sandbox

A Brief Synopsis of Virginia™; an artist, singer, writer, inventor, actress, psycho-social-spiritual analyst and model photographer. Biography [http://iamvirginia.com Virginia™] (born Virginia™ Traut on March 21, 1981 in Woodstock, IL) is best known as a multiple award winning, American singer-songwriter. However, her contributions far out range her musical talents. Virginia™ started playing keyboard and singing at the age of 7. Performing 80's one hit-wonders, she began performing concerts hardly one year later in 1989, as she turned eight years old.

From there Virginia™ started taking a liking to poetry. Her depressive nature can be read in any one of the thousands of poetry pieces she has authored. Although only a small handful have been never before released, but her poetry can also be heard through her lyrics. She coined Spoken Word as a songstress musical genre in 2010 as she defied its technical definition with this statement, "Lyrics are not just intellectual, they are words that form a certain level of truth. Lyrics are poetry and when certain poetry is brought to life, it must be shared with the right emphasis and vocal intonation. Sometimes that leads to more vocal inflection than one would expect at a Spoken Word event. Some artists, like myself, have experienced a connection that completely defies our typical idea of how talent is defined. The magnitude of the creative process goes well beyond any one person's psychi. It's truly mystical and opens up an opportunity for listeners to learn some of the most important lessons there are to learn in life."

By the time Virginia™ turned 12 years old, she had already recorded her first song. Shortly thereafter, she ran away from home to Ocean Beach, CA where she set out to become famous. A song from her debut album, Sweet Consicnece, that was released in 2000 actually refers to her experience in California as she witnessed Jewel transform from a coffee house performer to an international star. The song was titled, "Should've Been Me". Certain circumstances that led her back to her family, also led to her first collection of copyrighted songs. Her mother always encouraged her creativity and even uprooted the family to NJ so that she could study at one of the top 10 performing arts high schools in the nation. At the time, Red Bank Regional in Little Silver, NJ was very highly respected. It seemed that the turning point was when her mentor and vocal teacher, Rodney Somerville had suddenly passed away. Ever since then, the school hasn't reached the same level of notoriety as it did while she was in attendance.

Virginia™ gained her common-law trademark as an artist known solely as "Virginia" in the mid 1990's. The sale of her first actual album, entitled "Almost Live" was recorded at the local Internet Cafe in Red Bank, NJ by owner Paul Bogdanovich. Most of the songs could be later found on the album she released as "Sweet Conscience" under the independent label Gig Records. "Almost Live" is still very well recognized among her original fan base and consisted of songs such as "Losing Direction", "Why Do the Good Die Young" and "Believe Only Me" that have since, never found their way onto another professional recording. At least not yet.

Virginia's™ 2nd professional release was "Hush, the e.p.". This album, also released under Gig Records, can easily be considered her biggest claim to fame at the time as she gained awards from the AMA's or (Asbury Music Awards) for Top Female Vocalist, Top Female Solo Performer and held nominations in categories including Best New Album, Best New Band, and Best New Song of they year. She carried the titles for Top Female Vocalist and Solo Performance awards for several years before moving to Chicago for a brief period. During this time, she began writing her autobiography which would be a project she would carry with her for over eight years. The year was 2004 and she was battling writer's block while also trying to overcome the alcoholism she chose as a means to cope with her own expectations of success.

Nearly 10 years later, Virginia™ released her third and fourth album together as a double length collections of 21 songs. Together, the two releases are known as "Hush Underground Vol. 1 and Vol. 2". Separately, they are referred to "The Story of..." which contains more recent songs dating back to 2010 and "Someone Like Me" which was actually first recorded in 2006, but never released. After personally remixing and mastering the albums, she finally felt comfortable enough to release them in April 2013.

"You'll have to either read my book or wait until I die if you want to know more about my truth." - Virginia™ Virginia™ (talk) 09:29, 1 October 2013 (UTC)Virginia