Izellah’s resume is enough to make even the most experienced thespian jealous.
For the 2016/2017 seasons Izellah played the title role in Matilda – The Musical, performing some 80 shows in major cities across Australia and New Zealand, as well as taking on the role of Gretl in the London Palladium production of The Sound Of Music in 2016.
Other theatrical appearances in recent years have included productions of The King And I and The Music Man, and this solid background in musical theatre has meant a natural transition into the music industry – and she’s only 11 years old.
It’s hard to know what to expect before speaking with Izellah – a little adult or just a regular kid. “We really try to keep life pretty standard at home, really earthed,” says her father, Rahman. “When she’s onstage, she’s onstage, when she’s at home, she’s herself.”
Izellah, it transpires, is a great balance of both characters and very articulate. Finishing up using social media app Musically, the next serious addition to the social media entourage, it’s a public holiday in Queensland when we speak and Izellah has been spending it like a regular kid. “My friend came over for a sleepover last night because the school disco was on.”
Having just released her second single ‘Island Holiday’, the follow up to her debut ‘Unbeatable’, Izellah is putting an ultra-catchy spin on pop music that kids can relate to and enjoy. Written in collaboration with songwriting greats Michael Jay and Alan Demoss, when it comes to discussing her craft, Izellah reveals a confident and well-spoken young lady.
“I wanted to write a song but I didn’t know it was going to be about,” she says. “Michael, he’s the songwriter, he played this tune they made up on the mixer. I’m like, ‘That sounds good,’ and he was like, ‘What does that remind you of?’ I said, ‘Like an island, [a] holiday,’ so then we wrote about that.”
The way Izellah sings on ‘Island Holiday’ definitely has a tropical vibe, and she certainly conjures up imagery of crystal seas and white gold beaches, transporting people away with her because, as she says, singing this song makes Izellah feel like she’s somewhere else.
Singing and performing comes naturally to Izellah, but when she was the star of the stage show Matilda, executing 80 nights was, she says, simultaneously an exciting and overwhelming experience. “It felt normal because it was like a routine, we did it all the time,” she says. “At first it was a lot to handle but when I got used to it, it felt like a normal thing to do.”
With so much experience under her belt, and being such a natural talent at such a young age, the performing arts definitely mean a lot to Izellah. “Singing is just like, you can control emotion when you sing.
“You can feel happy when you sing, you can sing when you’re tired, sad, happy, all those feelings. I feel like when you sing, sometimes even when I’m mad, if you’re using a song it can make you feel better.”
Outside of musical theatre and her own songs, Izellah is just like any other kid, turning to pop music and other female singers for music to listen to for fun. “I listen to pop music,” she says, “I like Ariana Grande.”
In the future, Izellah could very well reach that same level of success. She doesn’t have a particular schedule of projects she’s going to address but she can say for certain that singing is in her future. “I’m going to keep doing more recording and releasing singles. In future I think I’m going to do a bit more musicals.
“My favourites are Billy Elliot and Matilda – I really want to audition for Billy Elliot. Her name [the character] is Debbie.”
It’s impossible to ask Izellah anything about where she sees herself as she grows up without her replies firmly relating to music and performing – her ambitions are set in stone. “More singing than musicals, I think,” she says. “I think musicals will be a sometimes thing.”
