(Drum beat)
Hi, this is Marya Gullo from the Hollywood Reporter
and we're in studio today with Miss America, Nia Franklin
Hi.
Hi, how are you?
I'm doing well.
Congratulations!
Thank you so much.
Have you even had a moment to sleep?
Yes, I have had a moment to sleep but it's really funny
the first night I only had two hours of sleep after I won.
Wow.
Yeah, it was a late night.
We've had some winners of The Voice on before
and they have the same thing,
they end up not sleeping at all.
But tell me a little about the moment you were crowned.
Yeah, so I made it to top five and from there
you know, the fourth runner up was called
and so on and so forth and then
it was just me there with Miss Connecticut
and she was so excited that she could barely contain herself
but I'm over here trying to contain myself
so it was very interesting.
She was just very excited for me it seemed like,
and she said you got this, and I was like
we're going to be great and we kind of
held our arms up together at one point
like just sharing the moment
because Carrie Anne took so long to announce
Bridget's name
I noticed that.
Really it took a long time.
I noticed that.
I mean we were about to die up there
but she finally got to it
and it was just an incredible moment
that it felt like of all my hard work had paid off.
It just felt like a moment that I could
you know, just take it all in.
I was definitely in shock but I knew that moment
that I was going to make sure
that this is the best year of my life so far
and that I do as much as I can
for this organization this year.
Wonderful. And I'm dying to know
all the things you plan to do this year
but before I do, I wanted to talk to you
a little bit about the new rules.
What was it like to have kind of a new competition where
there were a couple of different changes in the competition?
I really enjoyed it, however going into it
I was a little nervous because it's new
and when you are involved in organization
for x amount of years, for me this is my third year
being involved with the organization
you're used to the way things go, so yeah
that's why I was a little nervous.
But when we got there, things were kind of
explained to us more and at that point
I just decided to go with it.
There was no swim suit this year
and that was something that I came to grips with
a little bit before the pageant
or the competition but being there
and not having to worry about being bloated that week
from eating too much or anything like that
it was really nice because that can be
stressful for lot of girls, just you know
having that extra pressure on top of making sure
you're speaking well and presentable on stage.
So it was a little bit of pressure off
but at the same time because it was new
it was kind of like a give and a take I would say.
Mm-hmm. What was the most difficult thing
about the competition? What challenged you the most?
I would say just probably the either evening gown portion
or the on stage question.
Talent usually comes pretty easy for me
because I've been doing, performing my whole life.
Not in front of national TV, but I felt ready
for that portion of competition.
But yeah, anything when it deals
with just being a good communicator,
we all want to be the best we can be
and so there was a ten minute private interview
with the judges that happens
and for that you really have to make sure
you're engaging them and I would say
even aside from stage competition
that ten minute private interview that is so important
because a lot of people in the pageant world will say
interview is not won onstage.
It's won in that interview room.
Because if you can really get those judges to understand
the type of person you are
and the things you want to do in your community
and what you want to bring to the title should you win
that's something really see the real you
and it can be hard to do that in ten minutes.
Sure.
And so that was really my goal
and what I was most focused on tackling and doing well.
Yeah, it's such a limited amount of time
and you need to get across everything.
So much information.
Did you find yourself talking really fast?
I didn't. I was very calm the whole week.
I mean, I really just prayed for peace and serenity
that week and walking into the interview
that's what I tried to embody
and I was able to speak eloquently
and to just share the things I wanted to share
and the thing is you're not going to be able
to save the world in ten minutes.
You're not going to be able to tell them
all about your live in ten minutes.
So you just try to get the most important things
that matter to you.
For me that was music and advocating for the arts,
that was sharing my story with my dad
who had cancer and I was a stem cell donor
and he's doing well today.
And then it was also sharing what I wanted to do
as Miss America during my year
and how I would do it.
So if I could just get those three things across
then I knew I would probably have a solid interview.
Right. Well let's tackle those three things.
First let's talk about the arts.
You sang from an opera from La Boheme.
An operatic song? What is the way to say that?
An operatic song?
It would be called, it's called an aria.
So an opera in the most classical art operas,
you have what's called arias and recitatives.
Arias are the song that's more so
the lyrical melodic song that the character sings
and it's where she's, he or she is commentating
on how they're feeling more so and they're reacting
but the recitative is the actual dialogue
and that happens between characters.
It can be a monologue that happens
and it's more speechy singy
and so that's kind of the difference between the two.
So I chose an aria which is usually more entertaining
because it's more melodic.
And you know opera is kind of,
it's a very traditional form of art.
Why is it important for you to kind of
keep that tradition alive?
Well, it's a part of who I am.
In high school I decided I wanted to be
a music composer and I wanted to go to school for that
but in order to do that I needed an instrument to play
and I played piano by ear but I didn't want
to do it for college because I wanted
to more so focus on my compositional skills
and if I would have chosen piano
that would have been something I would have had to work at
you know, twice as hard when I already
kind of knew how to play piano
so I decided to choose an instrument that
would be more challenging for me
and something that I hadn't really done before
and that was singing classically.
So I decided to take lessons
and that was a great deal of my life.
I mean from the years of 2014 to 20, I'm sorry
2010 to 2015, I mean I was taking opera lessons
and classical voice lessons and I think it was important
to showcase that as a young woman,
as an African-American woman, you can sing opera.
In fact, that might be a stereotype that you know
black people don't sing opera
and I wanted to break down those stereotypes
and so it was important to do that on national TV for me.
Let's talk about the other facet, your family.
How do you plan on keeping in touch
with your family while you're on touring
across the country for the next year?
Well I would say just phone call, only a phone call away.
Facetime, and anytime that I am in the area
they may come visit me.
I know that I will possibly be having some bookings
in North Carolina where I'm from
being that I went to school there
and being that I competed in North Carolina
actually for two years so I'm hoping
that I'll be there sometimes and the other times
either they'll come to see me or we can facetime.
And how's your dad doing?
He's doing well.
He is really happy, he's so happy that I won.
He just celebrated his five year anniversary
of the stem cell transplant that we did
so he's getting stronger every day.
Wonderful, wonderful.
Okay, so now let's talk about your tour.
What is the plan?
What does Miss America do for the next year?
Everything under the moon, under the skies.
So everything from going to schools
and speaking with children about our organization
and kind of planting that seed for young girls
and even young boys that may want to get involved
with the organization one day
because even though right now
they wouldn't be able to compete
they could always volunteer.
This is a volunteer based organization
and also it's really great because this organization
promotes education and scholarships
so going in and talking about that.
Singing at, I'm actually the national ambassador
for the Children's Miracle Network Hospital.
That comes with the title of Miss America every year.
It's been ongoing for some time now.
So that's what I'll be doing, going in and seeing the kids
that are going through things with their families and
that's something I'm really actually looking forward to,
being that I've been there with my father and I can really
relate and empathize with them when it comes to that.
And I am a singer, songwriter and composer
so I want to spend this year also working on my craft too
and making sure that that doesn't go to the wayside
and going to different events.
I hope to be able to go to the Met Opera
at some point and see the opera.
I was able to go last year before I was Miss New York
or anything and it's really fantastic
to be in such a historic hall
where Leontyne Price and Renee Fleming had sang
and so I'm really excited about that.
Amazing. So okay, let's talk
a little bit about being Miss New York.
What are the unique things about New York State
that you kind of bring to the Miss America program?
The Miss New York title for me
was a sense of freedom, I would say.
You have no box, no limits, when you're Miss New York
because it's really the cultural capital of the world
so it's so diverse, you can kind of
push limits on things that you wear
and things you may go to, different appearances.
I actually right before I went to Miss America,
I was invited to go to the Champion grand opening
in Soho, the clothing line.
And so little things like that
that just kind of gives you a different experience
than other states may have being in New York
and it kind of prepares you for all the different
types of events you'll be going to during your year
because you never know what you're going to get booked for.
And as you kind of go across all the 50 states
is there anything that you are hoping to see?
Is there anything you're hoping will
bring the country together?
Yeah, I would say that for me it goes back
to good communication so that's something
I'll be doing all year, speaking to people,
speaking to different, even administrators.
I am really passionate about
making sure that children have access to the arts
and a lot of it does come down to funding.
And while that is an issue that can't be solved overnight
going to Washington D.C. and lobbying
and using my voice as Miss America
is something I'm really really excited about.
And also just making sure that little girls and little boys
have someone they can kind of look up to
and aspire to be one day, to see the things that I'm doing
going to get my education, being a helping hand
when it comes to even being a stem cell donor for my father
because that's something that I think more people
should be educated on as well.
So, when you want to go to Washington
and convince them that the arts should be well funded
for children, how are you going to convince them?
Why are the arts so important for children?
Well, they make you feel included.
For me, it was being a minority at my school
and feeling out of place a lot of the time
and that can lead to self esteem issues
but thankfully I did have the arts in my school
all the way through high school
and it always made me feel like I had a place,
like I had a family, a voice, and so many students
that aren't even minorities need that same thing
to be successful in school on a mental level.
And also children that I've worked with
I would want to share with them, I've seen the difference
that music has made from going and having no experience
with music, not even knowing what a piano was
to the end of the year, working with them
four times a week, they had better vocabularies,
higher attention spans, and they were really engaged
with the work that we were doing in the music class
and so I would want to share that for sure.
And then also I would want to share with them the hard facts
and one big statistic that I love to share is
there is a 20 per cent higher graduation rate
when you have music at your school curriculum.
And so that's really, that's a lot because you know
graduation, graduating is so important
and that can set you up for a lot of success in life
and having music in your school to help boost
the number of kids that graduate is really vital.
So yeah, as you're traveling around the country,
is there anything that you're looking forward to seeing?
It just depends on where I am.
I would love to go to Hawaii during my year.
Our Miss Hawaii this year at Miss America was so sweet.
She planted a tree for every girl from this, from the
50 states and the District of Columbia
and we all have a tree that we can go visit in Hawaii
and I would love to do that.
I would love to see Niagara Falls again.
I was actually able to go there
when I was competing for Miss New York
and up in kind of Buffalo New York.
So there's a lot of different things
but I would say those are the two
that I'm really looking forward to seeing.
Excellent. And is there anything in your suitcase
that you can't do without? What are you taking with you?
I can't do without my Beats headphones.
They're wireless, they're bluetooth
and I need to hear my music.
And I also can't go without like a pad
to scribble down my song lyrics
and things throughout the year when songs come to me
and different melodies come to me and I think that's it.
Are you planning on having some original songs
to collaborate with the kids that you're meeting?
Oh, that would be interesting.
I've written songs for kids before
so that can definitely see that happening this year.
So I have a couple of quick questions before I let you go.
This is a first/best/last/worst.
First career you wanted to have when you were a kid.
I wanted to be a famous singer like Whitney Houston.
You're still on that trajectory, excellent.
Best day as Miss New York.
Oh gosh, it was such a fun day.
I went to a home for people with disabilities
and I was able to sing for them with an accompanist
and there was one woman who came up
and started singing a song acapella, all by herself
and it was so sweet and so cute
and so that was a really touching moment for me
as Miss New York.
The last time you were inspired
by a speech, concert or movie.
I really liked the movie,
I watched it on the airplane awhile ago,
The Greatest Showman.
Uh-huh.
It made me cry, like three times.
I'm not really sure why. I guess it was just so sweet,
seeing this man kind of follow his dreams
and do all, work so hard for his family
so I'm a sucker for things like that.
It was inspiring to watch someone work hard
because I know what that feels like.
Excellent, yeah, and Hugh Jackman is
an incredible showman in his own right.
Yes, he's great.
Worst mistake while performing.
Not breathing. You have to breathe to sing.
Excellent. And lastly, what are three goals
for the next year for you?
Number one is to stay true to myself throughout the year
because there are so many people pulling you
from so many different directions
but I have my head on straight
and I know what I want to accomplish
personally and professionally and for this organization
so just keeping you know, true to myself.
I want to make sure that we can increase
our recruitment numbers and our volunteer numbers this year
and that's going to happen by just collaborating
with the board and the people that are here to help me
and really just being approachable
and personable when I go and meet people.
And lastly I really want to organize a benefit concert
and I'm hoping to have maybe some celebrities and things
come sing on it. Not sure on a location yet
but I would love for the proceeds
to go to the Children's Miracle Network Hospitals
since that's our national partner
and I'm the national ambassador for them
so I would really like to make that happen.
Excellent. Well we look forward to seeing what you do
this year. Nia Franklin, Miss America, thank you very much
for being here and enjoy your tour.
Thank you so much, thank you for having me.
Bye.