“Don’t let your nerves get the best of you, nerves can break a performer. I almost did going into the audition.”

Bring yourself back to that one big moment in life growing up as a child. Whether it’d be taking off the training wheels to ride like the big dogs or shining  like a star at your schools biggest play, we all were once faced with ‘growing up’s’ biggest challenges (or what felt like it at that time), and regardless of that fact, these were all moments that changed our lives forever.

Making his mark into the music scene (and into the hearts of many young girls), Vancouverite, Brock Zanrosso definitely depicts a dream well conquered.

We met up with Brock at Chronico Music Group, one of the headquarters for where he currently puts in work for his much anticipated first album—Edge.  With his aqua v-neck tee, slim fit jeans, fresh kicks and a dog tag to sum up his fashionable persona, here was Brock Zanrosso…the epitome of today’s high school girl’s dream, the beholder of those picture perfect eyes, the crooning voice behind hit singles, One More First Chance  & Push The Walls. The guy who was just singing (to me) from my living room TV… (ok i’ll stop.)

But besides the impressive fact that he’s a 15 year old recording artist who made it as one of the top 6 finalists on the modern day Star Search—YTV’s The Next Star  in Toronto of last year, he is undoubtedly still, a humble young man at heart.

As a child, growing up was that of on average kid. “I went to school, went home and did homework, nothing special. I’ve always sang just not in front of people,” says Brock. While holding on to his dreams with aspirations so high, it seemed almost impossible to reach for the stars. “I used to see people on TV and stuff and I would be like, ‘I want to do that’…. ‘I could do that one day’. That was when I was a bit younger and then I sort of gave up on it like, ‘it’s never going to happen, it’s such a dream…”

Little did he know 3 years later that something as simple as watching TV on the couch and believing in himself would change the course of his life for those once “impossible” dreams. With Canadian Idol no longer an option, there was only one door left just waiting to be opened. “I just thought, you know what, why not give it a try, you never really go anywhere if you don’t try so I felt kind of…very compelled to go and just give it a shot,” he says, about auditioning for the second season of The Next Star. “But I had never sung in front of anybody before [so] going through the audition was kind of like a big risk for me.”

A risk that was surely not to disappoint as the rising star went on to compete nervously as one of the top 6 finalists. “Everyone else on the show; the other  top 6 they would just be like so comfortable, I was the only one that was really like, ‘I’m nervous!’ I’m not going to sit there and pretend like I’m not. It [was] nerve racking to me.  It’s in front of national TV that I’m performing so it [was] definitely a nerve racking experience.” Fast forward a year later and this month of May officially marks a one year anniversary since the show.

The rising artist recently performed at the Shine Gala, a concert in which benefited cancer research.

“That was super important to me and I was really excited to perform there. I feel any kid should not have to go through that so being able to help was amazing.”

From being just an average kid and now finding himself in the midst of a life he once only dreamed of, his mark in the industry is nothing short of the common cliché of being at the right place at the right time. Perhaps, a lesson for the road taken that  as we grow in wisdom we learn fear can often times make or break the way the rest of our lives unfold. Limitations we set on ourselves then hinder us from a life once imagined. But when negative variables in life get put on the back burner then a life once fantasized now becomes surreal reality with that one chance taken.

Brock Zanrosso is boldly pushing his walls.

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http://www.brockzanrosso.com

Written by: KATRINA PERALTA
Photos by: ALEX YELIZAROV