Nicollet Middle Schooler Wows at Fair

Jenna Graves will have one heck of a back-to-school story to tell her classmates: On Sunday, the 13-year old from Burnsville performed on the Minnesota State Fair Grandstand in front of nearly 10,000 people.

Graves was one of seven competitors in the Teen Division at the Minnesota State Fair Amateur Talent Contest finals. Graves, who played guitar and sang the KT Tunstall hit, “Black Horse In A Cherry Tree,” was the first performer. Unfortunately, the plug-in for her guitar was dead and they had to pull out a portable microphone. However, she did her best to not let it affect her performance.

Graves did not finish among the top three, but was pleased with her performance.

“I think that it went good,” said Graves. “I didn’t have a plug-in at first, but I felt pretty good.” 

The top three performers were ironically, the last three contestants to perform. Opera singer Tori Adams finished first. Tap dancer Sylvia Borash was second, while Josh Swensen finished third after singing and playing guitar to the Johnny Cash classic ‘Folsom Prison Blues.’

The talent show contestants played at the Bandshell in the semifinals, but the finals were held on the Granstand stage, which hosted acts like Def Leppard, Reba, Toby Keith and Weezer during the fair’s run.

“It was awesome,” said Graves. “There were so many people. When you were looking out, you could see the floor and there were these green seats up top and you couldn’t see them because it was too dark.”

Graves said that she didn’t feel any stage fright, despite performing in front of the biggest crowd of her life.

“I thought that I was going to be nervous and I was trying to prepare myself from being freaking out, but I wasn’t nervous at all,” said Graves. “I was just excited.”

Jenna’s father, Steve Graves, was very proud of his daughter, who has only played the guitar for a year-and-a-half. 

“It was amazing,” said her father. “There were some people that had been playing for five or six years at the State Fair.”

Steve Graves said that Jenna had plenty of support from family and friends for the finals: About 75 people from Burnsville came to cheer Jenna on in addition to his parents, who live in California. For her part, Jenna said their enthusiasm helped.

“I had ten of my friends and they all wore shirts that said ‘Team Jenna,” said Graves. “They didn’t really care if I won or lost as long as I made it to the Grandstand.”

Graves, who performs in the Nicollet Choir, plans to continue refining her music talent at coffee shops and other talent shows. She hopes to return to the Minnesota State Fair next year.