Rachel Margolin Reaches For The Stars

Massapequa Park resident Rachel Margolin knows when there's going to be a talent show in the area.

That's because she receives calls from everyone she knows telling her to enter.

It was no different when the 14-year-old singing sensation heard about Nassau County's recent

"We received a number of phone calls from all of her friends," Margolin's mother Debbie Klein, said. "Her father called, everyone was calling."

It didn't take much to convince Rachel to try out for the contest, which led to her being named one of 25 finalists.

It's not surprising because singing has played a major role in her young life.

"I think I was born with music in my brains," she says. "I didn't come out screaming, I came out singing."

As a young child, she performed on a toy stage she set up in her living room. As she's grown, she's added acting and singing and piano lessons to the mix.

Next month, she will start at Massapequa High School's Ames campus after attending Berner Middle School, where she played the title role in the school's production of "Annie." She also played the comic strip orphan at the Stage Theater in Merrick.

While she enjoys acting, singing is Rachel's number one love.

"It's a way for me to express myself, she said. "Some people, they do drugs. I like to sing."

She knocked the judges dead when she auditioned for Reach for the Stars with a rendition of "Cabaret" that could've been mistaken for the Liza Minnelli version.

She also admitted to feeling some jitters.

"I'm not like a superhuman where I'm not nervous," she said. "No, I'm terrified."

But she also kept her cool under fire, especially when her performance in the competition was marred by the CD skipping.  She was forced to hold a note longer than she wanted to, but earned the respect of the crowd.

"It really had the audience rallying around her," Klein said. "Everybody felt so bad, and she just kept going."

Rachel didn't place in the competition, but she gained valuable experience, and had fun.

Eventually she'd like to make a career in music.

"Someday I'd like to be either singing on Broadway or singing at Madison Square Garden with Lady Gaga and Justin Bieber."

She has big dreams, but Rachel Margolin has a big voice to match them.