FRANKLIN
Singing “The Star Spangled Banner” isn’t a task that just anyone can do; the range requires a lot of skill and composure. One local singer will add to the pressure by doing it on a bigger stage, and she’s absolutely excited about it.

On Friday, Franklin’s Mesha Bullock, 10, will be traveling to Norfolk to open up the Mid Eastern Atlantic Conference’s basketball tournament in the Scope Arena at 6 p.m.

“I think being able to sing it is a joy. It’s the song for our country, about all we have fought for so that we can be free,” she said. “I’m looking forward to singing the national anthem.

“Besides, whoever can sing it, I’m very proud of you because it is quite a hard song to sing.”

Mesha said she performed at halftime during one of the games two years ago, singing “Go” and “Hallelujah.”

“That was cool,” she said. “The people were very shocked, I remember, that someone who was so small — I was 8 — had such a big voice.”

This year, she had to audition for it twice, and Mesha said she was “very, very excited” to get the chance.

“I think it will be a very good experience,” she said. “It’ll be in front of more than 2,000 people.”

Mesha said she’s been singing ever since she was 4 years old.

“I used to sing everything,” she said. “The songs I heard on the radio, I would just pick them up and start singing along. I thought about music a lot.”

Then at church in North Carolina, she saw people singing in the choir, and she thought it was cool.

“One day, I got a chance to sing the song called ‘Go’ at church, and I just remember people being so amazed,” she said.

Mesha took the ability to sing and ran with it. She performs at many area events, such as the national anthem before one Franklin High School Broncos football game. Also, she has won several local talent shows, including the Franklin-Southampton County Fair and the Conway, North Carolina, 100 Centennial Years Talent Contest. She’s a member of the choir at New Middle Swamp Missionary Baptist Church in Corapeake, North Carolina, and also of The Hurrah Player’s Family Production Company of Norfolk, where she has been in several plays.

Singing is very important to her life.

“Yes, I want to be a singer,” Mesha admitted. “I want to be a very famous singer. My favorite part of singing is I get to express how I feel in the music I sing. The music speaks to me.”

While she hasn’t taken a lot of vocal classes, singing is something she is constantly doing or thinking about.

“I like that I can make people happy,” Mesha said. “I think it is very cool, and I am proud that God has given me these gifts, and that I am able to do these types of things.”

Mesha likes hip-hop and R&B, but her favorite music to sing is gospel.

“I was brought up in the church,” she said. “God has given me this gift, and I will sing for Him and praise His name.”

Representing Franklin is also important to her.

“I love to represent Franklin,” Mesha said. “Franklin is a small city, and I’m a little person coming out of it with a big voice. Franklin, we are moving on up there to the top!”

She is the daughter of Shayna Carrington and Rahime Bullock. Her grandparents are Winfred and Joyce Ralph, and Fiesta Boone.