Pentatonix powerhouse Kirstin Maldonado doesn't like country music?! And what's with her failed
engagement? More juicy details about the pop vocalist ahead.
The members of Pentatonix have known each other for a long time. In fact, Kirstin Maldonado
and Mitch Grassi have known each other since they were 8 years old! Maldonado then met
Scott Hoying in high school, and the three active choir members decided to form the group.
According to an interview in Go Pride with Grassi, Maldonado participated in high school
choir all four years.
In 2014, Maldonado told Sweety High that once the trio got together, they started making
plans to perform. In fact, Maldonado, Grassi, and Hoying attempted to take their act out
on the road pretty early in the evolution of Pentatonix. Maldonado told the publication
that, while they were still in high school,
"Scott, Mitch and I formed a little trio for a radio contest and put something together.
We ended up singing at a choir concert and it got a lot of attention so we just kept
doing it."
The band remained a trio until Maldonado and Hoying entered college and the threesome decided
to audition for "The Sing-Off." To be competitive, Maldonado said they needed two more members,
and that's exactly what happened next.
Before they made competing on "The Sing-Off" their goal, Kirstin, Scott, and Mitch were
called The Trio and uploaded a lot of their music to YouTube. Maldonado later told Hollywood
Life that going from DIYing a music career online to winning Grammys wasn't easy, but
the path was doable and worth it. She added that the key to finding success is to keep
going, even when it would be easier to quit. She said,
"A lot of people get bogged down by everything going on, and so many people are trying to
do the same thing, so find your niche and stick with it."
Their appearance as a five-member group on "The Sing-Off" put Pentatonix on the map.
Maldonado told Sweety High that when they auditioned for the show, getting famous wasn't
the goal. She explained how the group's obvious affinity for singing and performing is what
made them explode, saying,
"I think originally it was just a fun thing to do where we could all hang out and see
each other, and we all ... obviously loved singing, so that just took off."
"I love that! I think that's great."
"Oh, really?!"
After Kirstin Maldonado's parents divorced when she was 6 years old, she was mostly raised
by her mom. She credits her childhood with her mom as the gateway experience that led
her to music in the first place, telling blogger The Asian Fusion Girl that the pair spent
a lot of time in the car listening to their favorite songs. Her mom took her daughter's
interest in music seriously, and, as Maldonado said,
"She finally put me into voice lessons when I was 8 years old and I did a community theatre
show, fell in love with it."
Maldonado's mother played a role in her musical career before those lessons as well. As the
story goes, Maldonado's first real "performance" was singing at her mom's wedding, where she
reportedly wowed the crowd.
While Kirstin Maldonado and the rest of the Pentatonix members were already focused on
their music and talent in high school, she did go on to study at the University of Oklahoma
for a time. As related by Tulsa World, in true form, she majored in musical theater
before dropping out to pursue a spot on "The Sing-Off" alongside the rest of the group.
While her original goal had been to move to New York and perform onstage, once Maldonado
moved to Los Angeles, she didn't look back.
While it's likely she wouldn't change anything about the path she took to stardom, Maldonado
has been honest about hoping she can finish her college degree one day. As she told The
Asian Fusion Girl, her mom is her biggest reason why. She explained,
"How she raised me, it was just important to get good grades. It's just something I
value so much, especially after I didn't have to do it (school) anymore."
Kirstin Maldonado has battled insecurity, like most of us, and has been quite honest
about the internal battles she fought after first moving to Los Angeles. She explained
to The Asian Fusion Girl that part of the problem was that, before moving, the most
independent living she'd done was living away at college for a year. Though it took time,
she added that, these days, she's feeling much more confident. Maldonado said,
"I've found my place in the group and within myself. In the industry, it's hard to pinpoint
who you really are sometimes." The topic came up again in an interview with
Yahoo! News. Maldonado explained how she spent a lot of time trying to be what others expected
her to be instead of who she is. She added,
"I think it just took a lot of confidence-building throughout the years and kind of accepting
who I was and taking those risks and taking those opportunities."
As the only girl in Pentatonix, Kirstin Maldonado is acutely aware of her position as a role
model for young girls who want to pursue a career in entertainment, especially as singers.
In fact, as she told The Asian Fusion Girl, it's a position she embraces. After sharing
a story about a fan who met her and the rest of her bandmates and was surprised at how
"normal" they all were, Maldonado added that she hopes other young girls and women see
her as someone who dared to go for her dreams and who made it.
Maldonado explained that she has high hopes for her impact on others, saying,
"I want to inspire people to tear down their walls, especially for teenage girls. So many
people don't believe in themselves; people are worth so much more than what social media
shows."
In 2016, Kirstin Maldonado and her then-boyfriend, Jeremy Michael Lewis, made a major announcement:
They were getting married! Lewis proposed in a major way after three years of dating.
The story in and of itself is pretty spectacular: Lewis was on the road with Pentatonix when
they performed in Paris, France, and he decided to make the city that many consider to be
the most romantic in the world the backdrop to the proposal.
At the time, Maldonado was over the moon, gushing to People magazine about the details.
After Lewis had a photographer secretly planted at the spot of his choice, he dropped down
to one knee and asked Maldonado to be his wife. While she was thrilled with the proposal
and the engagement ring, Maldonado told the publication she wasn't in a rush to get married,
explaining,
"Being engaged is such a beautiful next step, and I don't mind being in that state because
it's just so wonderful and happy."
However, it seems that things weren't meant to last between the two. In 2017, Radar Online
revealed the pair had called their wedding off to quote, "work on separate issues." Per
her Instagram, she is currently dating filmmaker and photographer Ben Hausdorff.
In 2017, Kirstin Maldonado surprised fans by announcing the release of her first solo
EP. While some might have been worried this spelled the end of Pentatonix, Maldonado made
it clear that Pentatonix was, and is, very much together — she just felt ready to explore
on her own for a bit.
"I am nervous and excited and I can't wait to see it all come to life."
As she told Hollywood Life, she's grown up a lot over the years, and the time to show
that was upon her. She added,
"Now having experience and confidence, this project has been amazing and I feel more creative."
Maldonado's first solo single was "Break A Little." As she told Entertainment Tonight,
the song meant a lot to her. She shared how she'd been working toward writing a song like
this for some time, explaining,
"I always wanted to write a sad song that sounds happy. I think everyone can relate
to this emotion. It's about longing for something."
Like a lot of us, Kirstin Maldonado found out she needed to get pretty creative to keep
herself going when the coronavirus pandemic hit in 2020. To solve her dilemma, she set
up a studio inside her home — though she was quick to admit that she relied on her
Pentatonix bandmates to make sure the studio was in tip-top shape. In fact, she told Billboard
that she called Kevin Olusola to get his advice, saying,
"'Kevin, I have this, this and this. What cords am I missing? What do I need? What am
I doing? Like, what is happening?'"
Luckily, she pulled it together as the rest of her bandmates got their own home studios
organized. The group even managed to record an EP of all cover songs called, naturally,
"At Home."
When you're a famous singer or musician, it makes sense that people want to know what
kind of music you listen to on your own — and Kirstin Maldonado has been happy to answer
that question. While speaking to The Hollywood Reporter in 2011, Maldonado admitted that,
despite her Texas roots, the only genre of music that no one in the group listens to
is country music.
After noting, "I'm just being honest," Maldonado added that each member of the group has their
own musical influences and interests, which can bring a lot to the table when it's time
to record together. However, it seems that Maldonado must have
had a change of heart between the time she gave that interview to The Hollywood Reporter
and when she was still planning her wedding in 2017. While speaking to People, Maldonado
told the publication she was planning a first dance to Lonestar's "Amazed," adding,
"I've known that song for forever because I'm from Texas. Country music is just always
playing everywhere."
In 2018, Kirstin Maldonado lived out her dream of moving to New York City and performing
onstage when she joined the cast of Broadway's "Kinky Boots."
"This was like my biggest dream come true, and so to do it with this cast, what a family
they are, and what the message is saying, is just, like, a dream come true, it's everything
I ever wanted it to be and more."
Maldonado told Playbill that performing in the musical was truly the realization of a
dream she'd had since childhood. She explained,
"I've dreamed of being on Broadway since I was a little girl, so it's really exciting
to fulfill two dreams. I think the most fulfilling thing you can do in an artistic career is
to do all these different things."
After sharing that she had actually seen the show three different times on her own, Maldonado
praised each of the actresses who had previously performed her role of Lauren.
"Kinky Boots" isn't the only Broadway production Maldonado has been involved with. In August
2021, Broadway World announced that the singer had taken on a part in a Chicago production
of "Children of Eden."
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