September 20, 2007 Issue                                       

©2007 The Chestnut Hill Local

Philly Starr wins local contest
by KRISTIN PAZULSKI

With an Urban Idol win and an album due, Star Bonilla is on the rise. (Photo by Erin Vertreace)

When Starr Bonilla makes it as a famed R&B singer, Chestnut Hill’s Water Tower Recreational Center can make claim that the singing “Starr” started on its own stage.

In July, Bonilla participated in the Water Tower’s Urban Idol, a contest in its second year that brings locals to recreational centers’ stages to compete for a spot in the citywide final competition.

After winning the Water Tower’s contest, she moved on to the final competition at the Dell East center and took home the winning trophy by singing Whitney Houston’s, “I Have Nothing.”

Bonilla, an 18-year-old R&B and hip hop singer who said she has wanted to be a professional singer since she was 4 years old, is already recording her own album and has performed as an opener for various R&B artists at Warm Daddies, a soul food restaurant and bar in Philadelphia.

When she was 13, she was a guest singer on a Disney compilation album, singing the song “Anything is possible,” and recently was given a two-hour solo set at LOVE Park during a local singer program.

Since she was 15, she has worked with Shanda Williams, now her manager, to cultivate a physical image that can help her market herself as a singer, and now, at 18, she’s in the studio, recording. This first album — still unnamed — should have about 12 songs on it, and Bonilla anticipates it will come out in mid-January. She said most of the songs are about being a teenager.

“I write about everything that goes with being a teenager and a teenager’s life,” Bonilla said.

Bonilla, who is from South Philadelphia, graduated from Edward Bok Vocational School and works in the bakery of the local BJ’s Wholesale Club. She participated in the Water Tower competition, she said, because, when she learned about the contest from a friend, the Water Tower’s date was the next one being held and she wanted to be in it as soon as possible.

“Everyone was really talented,” said a giddy Bonilla. “I was sitting backstage going, ‘Oh wow.’ Everyone had something to bring to the stage, I was so nervous.”

But participating in the contest paid off. Her singing hasn’t started paying the bills yet, but her family is really supportive of her aspirations, and since winning the Urban Idol competition, interest in her has been increasing, she said. 

She’s been receiving a lot of phone calls from reporters interested in interviewing her, and 103 The Beat is sending her to New York City for a weekend to attend an R&B tour that, if it travels to Philadelphia, she might get to sing with.

Though she is Philadelphia’s Urban Idol, Bonilla and Williams steered away from becoming America’s next Idol. When the popular competition came to Philadelphia last month, Williams said Bonilla considered entering the competition, but after reading the contract and seeing that, if she made it to the show, the producers would “own” Bonilla and her work for about five years (and take a lot of the profits) they decided not to.

“I’m sticking with this over here,” Bonilla said, referring to her recording and smaller shows. And hopefully that’ll make Starr a star.  —KP