Troy Student Fan Favorite At Chicago Bulls Kids Talent Search

Photo: Troy Middle School 8th grader Payton Fraser at the United Center in January.

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Troy Middle School eighth grader Payton Fraser won “Fan Favorite” at the January 27 Chicago Bulls 2020 Kids Talent Search and will continue to the final competition April 11.

Payton earned the honor after singing, “Almost There,” from the Disney movie, “Princess and the Frog,” at halftime during a Chicago Bulls basketball game at the United Center. She sang before an audience of 16,000. She said she had received a call asking her if she would participate in the talent search after someone heard her sing “The National Anthem” at another event.

“It was crazy,” she said of singing at the United Center. “There was such a rush of emotions, I didn’t even realize I had won.”

She said she worked through the nerves with deep breaths and by centering herself.

At Troy Middle School, Payton has played the lead roles of Ariel in Disney’s “The Little Mermaid” and Dorothy in “The Wizard of Oz.” She also participates in Troy’s Speech Club, where she won Judge’s Choice for Impromptu Speaking at the district level, is in Honor Choir, won an angel investor award through the Joliet Region Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s Young Entrepreneur EXPO and was a Shorewood Lions Club Student of the Month at William B. Orenic Intermediate School.

Troy Middle School is a Troy Community School District 30-C school.