Mark Mejia

Biography: Mark Lester Lalangan Mejia, by full name, was born on May 17, 1992 in Los Angeles, CA. His parents are Emmanuel and Gilda Mejia. He has one brother, Matthew Mejia and a half-brother named Paul Vincent Mejia. Mark started Kindergarten in Long Beach and then moved to San Diego in March, 1998. He transferred to St. John of the Cross Catholic School for Kindergarten up to Fifth Grade. He is now studying at St. Rita's Catholic School for 6th to 8th Grade. His favorite subjects are Music, Spelling, Math, Art, and Computers. He was first place in the spelling bee competitions from Grades 2 to 4. Mark loves singing and enjoys playing the piano. His talent in singing was first noted at the age of 3, when he was singing songs from the movie called "The Sound of Music". His first singing appearance on stage was in a coronation ball of one of his cousins in San Francisco, CA where he was only 6 years old. He began taking voice lessons at the age of 9.
Mark Mejia competed at theMark Lester Lalangan Mejia, by full name, was born on May 17, 1992 in Los Angeles, CA. His parents are Emmanuel and Gilda Mejia. He has one brother, Matthew Mejia and a half-brother named Paul Vincent Mejia. Mark started Kindergarten in Long Beach and then moved to San Diego in March, 1998. He transferred to St. John of the Cross Catholic School for Kindergarten up to Fifth Grade. He is now studying at St. Rita's Catholic School for 6th to 8th Grade. His favorite subjects are Music, Spelling, Math, Art, and Computers. He was first place in the spelling bee competitions from Grades 2 to 4. Mark loves singing and enjoys playing the piano. His talent in singing was first noted at the age of 3, when he was singing songs from the movie called "The Sound of Music". His first singing appearance on stage was in a coronation ball of one of his cousins in San Francisco, CA where he was only 6 years old. He began taking voice lessons at the age of 9.
Mark Mejia competed at the Seafood City Fiesta Filipina-Mexicana Karaoke Singing Contest in San Diego on October, 2001 where he won as the "Grand Champion". On February 23, 2002, he joined again in the Manila Tokyo Kiddie Karaoke Contest and, again, he won first place. He has also performed at the Binibining Pilipinas-USA Beauty Pageant in 2002 and 2003. Mark has performed with some professional Filipino artists from the Philippines, such as Vina Morales, Jose Mari Chan, Jaya, Joey Albert, Jam Morales, Janno Gibbs, Nonoy Zuniga, Jamie Rivera, Richard Reynoso, and Patricia Javier, in their concerts in San Diego. He has also done a concert with Apo Hiking Society in Reno, Nevada. He was also a choir member at his school.
The Star Search auditions were held on April 14, 2003 at the Grand Horton Hotel in San Diego, where Mark auditioned. He was lucky enough to get a call-back in just 5 days after his audition. He sang "Never Can Say Goodbye" by Michael Jackson and won the Preliminary episode of Star Search in the Junior Singer category. He won again in the Semi-Finals singing "New York, New York" by Frank Sinatra and advanced to the Finals which was on May 14, 2003. On the Finals, he sang "I Want You Back" by Michael Jackson again and won as the Star Search Junior Singer Champion. He won the prize of $100,000 and a contract with CBS.
On October of 2003, Star Search Supervising Producer, Meredith Fox, called him asking him to join the Winners' Circle in the new season of Star Search 2004. Here, two challengers in each episode competed against each other and the winner would get to challenge someone in the Winners' Circle. Mark was never challenged for the past four episodes. Then on February 14, there was a Winners' Circle Showdown. This, however, was not the Finals. Whoever won would receive a free pass to the Finals. Luckily, he won this episode with the song "MacArthur Park" by Donna Summer and could not be challenged at all. On March 13, 2004, the Finals arrived. He performed another hit of Donna Summer called "Last Dance" and won the competition with 12 stars, earning another $100,000 prize. He, once again, got the title of Star Search Junior Singer Grand Champion for the second time.
Last November 6, 2004, he performed in a hugely successful concert in Murray State University in Kentucky. He will also be seen performing with Philippine's Superstar Miss Nora Aunor which is scheduled in March, 2005.… Expand