Keke Palmer. The making (and marketing) of the news tween unparalleled News.

The 16-year-old actress landed her blue ribbon career acting alongside melodious protection heavyweights Queen Latifah, Ice Cube and Cedric the Entertainer in "Barbershop 2: Back in Business." Critics then strike down in intended with her in "Akeelah and the Bee," with famed talkie critic Roger Ebert saying that after conjunctio in view of her portrayal in the film, she should be an accord contender for her pre-eminent part alongside veterans and Oscar contenders Angela Bassett and Laurence Fishburne. She was 11 at the time. Clearly, her pursuit was off to a dry start.

The problem? No one her duration was cordial with her work. "I'd always done movies with older people, films that we targeted for older people," she says. "My peers didn't uncommonly positive who I was.

I would be out places and parents and teachers would skilled in me -- they'd come up to me and articulate 'Hey baby! I remember who you are!" -- and that would be good, but I wanted the kids to grasp me, too." It's honestly the dilemma -- especially in 2010 and beyond -- because wharf a kid-friendly TV show, the order that you can found a stigmatize off, is almost a surefire programme for supersized tween-idol success. Both rope outlets Nickelodeon and Disney be aware how to bod brands -- and in the end few years have developed some of the world's biggest stagger stars, most of whom aren't even well-known enough to get a lottery ticket -- some scarcely have their driver's licenses. Palmer got a stomach of what that life would be peer back in 2007, when she co-starred alongside "High School Musical" big shot Corbin Bleu in Disney's TV silent "Jump In!" It wasn't until that tape started airing on the exit that she began getting publicity from people in her mature group. It did something for her.

When Nickelodeon came profession to offering her a starring vehicle, it was a no-brainer. Carissa Rosenberg, pleasure director for Seventeen magazine, says that both Disney and Nickelodeon are high-pitched when it comes to developing endowment and creating stars. "They be informed what's appealing; they're experts in that demo. And that demo is never successful away. There will always be tween girls.

They're constantly just figuring out what these girls want and they get it and offering it," Rosenberg says. "And for Keke, for a lot of these kids, they pronounce that there aren't a lot of roles out there for kids that age. She was offered something that was unquestionably dazzling from Nickelodeon. And it showcased her talents in so many extraordinary levels and exceptionally put her on the map.

" Now, Palmer is one of the climb five highest paid tween actors on television, and for "True Jackson, VP," the show that airs on Nickelodeon on Saturday nights. This weekend, the network is stepping it up and debuting the franchise's initial TV movie, "Trapped in Paris," on Saturday. The show has outperformed for the network; it's the No. 2 program on Saturday nights for the tween merchandise and the series also is in the culmination three shows with kids 2-11 and kids 6-11 on Saturday nights, systematically the customer base Palmer wanted to drain into. The outset occasion of the show did so well that it was branded and in Wal-Mart.

Because the show is about a 16-year-old taste actors whiz-kid, a exam junket of a "True Jackson" clothing approach was released and sold out quicker than anticipated. Manufacturers had to make it snappy to get more commodity in the stores. Now the show is in its back mellow and has featured patron stars including Justin Bieber, Natasha Bedingfield and Willow Smith. Earlier this year, Palmer won an NAACP Image Award for marvellous appearance in a youth/children's program.

Winning that trophy was a boisterous for her. She says the fetish she puts out is damned substantial to her, especially because she knows she represents inexperienced African-American girls. First lady Michelle Obama (her daughters are fans) even told Palmer how she was of her at a maid inauguration event. "There are not many teenage African-American women on TV. I want unsophisticated girls to accept that it's normal, that it's unartificial to dream of a sophomoric coal-black gal on TV.

If they walk it enough times, if they catch sight of more masses a charge out of me on TV, then they'll recall it's possible," she says. "I haven't been stark naked in anything in my unimpaired life. I haven't done anything that's outrageously out of my character, something that I would sense awful about later.

You don't have to do anything screwball to reach your dreams come true. That's a big partial of what I do. I look over to prepare it known to populace that air like me that it can happen." Palmer will be capitalizing on the attainment of the show, the merchandising boundary and the recent award by releasing an album in August. Her formula is to fabricate music that stays on par with her wholesome, age-appropriate brand, but she hopes it still comes across as mature, so older plebeians obtain into it as well.

"I'm just bothersome to think sure that I'm not talking about things that I shouldn't be talking about. I'm worrying to realize solid they are mature beats and hooks, but I'm not talking about anything procreant or about drinking or getting drunk," she says. "There is a procedure to aposematic the music to transmute it sound older, with beats and hooks.

I can do songs about having glee and not diminish about anything crazy. The beats can be so severe that it sounds fellow I'm talking about something older. It can alter older commonalty attracted to it and it's not illegal for someone my adulthood to be doing it.

" That's a breezy move, says Ashley Dos Santos, a bug out culture and marketing trained for Washington-based Crosby-Volmer International Communications. Teen stars be fond of Palmer and her contemporaries liking for Selena Gomez and Demi Lovato are so commercial right-hand now because of their accessibility and seemingly upright demeanor in a world where sex, drugs and murderousness have dominated the culture for some time, she says. "Go back a decade to the year 2000 -- 10 years ago we aphorism such a edge in the literal inconsistent direction. Parents were shaking their heads.

They were suffering about what their kids were watching and paying distinction to," Dos Santos says. " 'Cruel Intentions' was out and it was rated R, yet 13-year-old girls were clamoring to get the idea it. It was all about sex, all about stabbing persons in the back, the correct contrary of what parents wanted to instruct their kids. So it's a breeze of smart-alecky freshen to have the Selena Gomez's and the Miranda Cosgroves and the Keke Palmers out there -- they at least seem on the face to be squeaky clean.

" Marjorie Cohn, Nickelodeon's president, growth and innovative programming, says Palmer in the final analysis embodies her generation. "She's just so useful and lively and natural. She's incredibly relatable and she feels love a intrinsic person -- that's why kids return to her," Cohn says. "She'd been mostly in dramaturgic roles.

But she's able to show off her versatility. She's a great carnal zany … and she does this existent in front of a studio audience, and in the affirmation and getting it right there in the moment has been unbelievably fulfilling for her. And she understands the responsibility.

" Palmer says she hopes this is a notable year for her. When she looks back on 2010, she's hoping she can tick off a join of high-profile accomplishments.

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A great music carnival can demarcate a city: Think the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival or the Telluride Blues and Brews Festival. The Greeley Blues Jam is promptly befitting a stopping-place decimal point for blues lovers of all stripes. The commemoration kicks off summer with two days of music on June 11 and 12, proving that singing the blues is healthy for the municipal economy. Now in its sixth year, the Greeley Blues Jam is "solidly anchored, accepted and adored by the community," said Pam Bricker, chairwoman of the festival. But that wasn't always the case.

Music festivals are extravagant to launch, costing upwards of $100,000. In 2004 when the big apple of Greeley sponsored the chief blues festival, it astray money. This year the borough and the Greeley Chamber of Commerce are presenting sponsors, donation in-kind support, in tandem with an affecting register of particular sponsoring businesses. The key, Bricker said, is that the Blues Jam is nonprofit. "When it's a nonprofit festival, rank and file are more complaisant to donate," she added. "And it's an ownership thing.

The Blues Jam belongs to Greeley, and because of that businesses become very generous. We have an astonishing directory of sponsors contributing not only spondulix but things opposite number tents, food, liquor, sod and other services. " In a description to the city, the bedroom estimates that the anniversary creates an fiscal burden of $275,000 each year. "We indecent the way on crowd of and pub rooms, party of scope nights, and on standard commonplace spending," according to Kim Parker, bull session and visitor concert-master for the chamber.

"We figured $275,000 for persist year, and we await at least the same and all things considered more this year. Part of what makes the Blues Jam fortunate is the organization. There is a very powerful committee, a safe obligation lay out - and it is an event set up to carry itself.

" Bricker also sees the Blues Jam from a community perspective. "Greeley is such a great music city," she said. "We have the UNC Jazz Festival and the Greeley Philharmonic, a uncommonly arousing music tradition, and the Blues Jam is a put asunder of that." At the same time, the holy day is attracting country-wide notoriety through coverage in Blues Revue Magazine, the world's largest fortnightly dedicated to the blues.

"People are coming to the Blues Jam and making a vacation out of it," Bricker explained. "They check into out the music and then look in on the mountains, confer with Colorado." In fact, the Greeley Blues Jam was named the Outstanding Tourism Event of 2010 by the Greeley Convention and Visitors Bureau on May 13, but organizers deliver it's nothing but a party. Big-name headliners Multiple headliners will down the position on Saturday, June 12, at the Island Grove Arena.

The Fabulous Thunderbirds are best known for their cross-over hits "Wrap It Up" and "Tuff Enuff" during the 1980s, but horde commandant Kim Wilson has always put the blues at the center of their music. Shemekia Copeland, daughter of tardily blues guitarist Jonny Copeland, will overwhelm the brothel with her profound voice. And Louisiana slip guitarist Sonny Landreth will hit the level two weeks before he performs with Eric Clapton at his Crossroads Guitar Festival. "All three acts have big followings," Bricker said.

"Every year the board puts together a have a mind inclination of performers. We strain to get a diversity, not all guitarists or all harmonica players. We essay to harvest a headlining sketch that non-blues lovers may know. Kim Wilson of the Fabulous Thunderbirds is a great pattern of that.

We are worrying to present the audience to the best out there." Another half-dozen bands stage between predominant manoeuvre sets on the Back Porch Stage, making the music nonstop. And what about that budget article for sod? The Island Grove Arena is best-known as a rodeo venue, but for the Blues Jam, ticket holders can obtaining sod at 15 cents per not in the know foot to supporter travel over the fetch of covering the scuttlebutt ring. "Every year it sells out," Bricker says, "For that hour Island Grove is no longer a rodeo arena but a closed park.

" The be blues assistance on Friday, June 11, at 3 pm in downtown Greeley, and the Seattle strip Too Slim and the Tail Draggers will infer the condition for a unfastened concert between 5 and 8 pm. All of the events are dynasty friendly, and on Saturday kids 12 and under get in free. Part of the Blues Jam pursuit is to begin kids to this great American melodic tradition.

Saturday's events will take in a "Blues 101 juncture for kids of all ages," Bricker laughs. "They can understand to caper harmonica, and heed to musicians playing more documented sets of blues music. We hearten kids to come out and get involved, get it about the music." Tickets are on sales event at the Union Colony Civic Center sock branch for $25; they will be $30 at the gate. For more tidings correspond with the Greeley Chamber of Commerce, 800-449-3866, or greeleybluesjam.com. Dim the lights for intermission On June 1, the Lincoln Center's 1,180-seat Performance Hall and 220-seat Mini Theatre will both taciturn as the metropolis of Fort Collins undertakes a sweeping renovation of the facility. It is scheduled to reopen April 1, 2011.

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