Standing on her tiptoes, Melissa Lujan stretches toward the microphone at Side 3 Studios, where she is about to record a new set of lyrics.
The 5-foot-tall singer from Brighton is too short to reach the mic without help, so she calls to her manager and producer Adelio Lombardi to lower it.
“Check, check. OK, cool,” she says, thumbing through her Sidekick 3 cellphone for the song she admits is not one of her best efforts.
“But, oh well,” she says.
Lujan will have to do better than that if she’s going to make her goal of standing in the spotlight at the Grammy Awards within the next five years. And the 22-year-old, who sings a Latin-infused blend of pop and R&B, will need a lot of help from people like Lombardi along the way.
She’ll need to compose a song that really strikes a chord with audiences. She’ll need to score some airtime on major-market radio stations. And she’ll need to find the energy to do it all over again.
It’s a combination of tenacity and stage presence that separates the wannabes from the pros, says Valerie DeLong, owner of Moxy Entertainment and former senior vice president of promotion of Universal Music Group. “A lot of people don’t have what it takes to remain on the intense schedule required by the industry.”
Lujan gets that. And even though she once – very briefly – considered quitting, she says she remains optimistic and single-minded. She has been singing since her teen years and refuses to imagine a life outside music.
Star-shaped gold earrings the size of 50-cent pieces dangle from her ears, a constant reminder of her dreams. “I definitely believe we have a path and if you stay on it you will be successful,” Lujan says.
When she is not recording, writing songs based on past relationships, practicing or traveling to gigs in Texas and Southern California, the aspiring pop princess is working out – an average of two hours a day – to stay healthy and have enough energy for concerts, but not so much that she works away her softness.
“I wanna keep my curves; that’s sexy,” Lujan says.
Lujan’s bills for rent, chic clothes, a personal trainer and costly cosmetics are paid by the studio and a collection of private sponsors.
Producer Lombardi says it will only take one hit – one lucky break – for him and Lujan’s sponsors to earn back their investment.
“If she has one hit song, we should be able to make our investment back,” Lombardi says, accounting for the $2,000 the studio invested in cosmetics and clothes last month, but not including the money they will spend on radio promotion within the next month.
Even all that spending is no guarantee that Lujan can break into the Top 40.
It’s a common misconception, DeLong says, that if you’re willing to take on the music world, push hard to get your songs on the radio, uploaded to websites and heard at local venues, you’ll be rewarded with success.
Listeners determine which performer becomes a superstar. “We may sit in the room and say this is the greatest thing we’ve ever heard, but you can’t convince the consumer,” she says.
Denver’s radio market is evidence. Even though she’s a hometown girl, you probably won’t get a chance to bust a move to Lujan’s new single, “Please Don’t Go,” which she made with Brown Boy, a Mexican rapper who records at the same studio and sounds a bit like the multiplatinum singer Chris Brown.
But you can catch her if you’re surfing the dial in Dallas or Bakersfield, Calif. The song is getting lots of play in those markets, according to Mediabase, a program that tracks how many times a song is played and where.
“Hispanics are no longer the minority and the West Coast flava does very well here,” says Roger “DJ Spin” Sosa, music director and disc jockey at CASA 106.7-FM in Dallas, which has been playing Lujan’s song at least once a day. CASA plays to an audience that is about 23 percent Hispanic, compared with a 19 percent Hispanic audience for Denver’s mainstream R&B station KS 107.5-FM.
Cat Collins, program director at KS 107.5, says local radio stations “do not have the power to make or break a career,” he says.
“If she came out with a song tomorrow I was excited about, then we’d talk about it,” says Collins, explaining Lujan has to compete with the likes of Beyonce, Fergie and Ludacris for audience approval on his station. “She just hasn’t broken through.”
Still, the station does what it can. KS 107.5 played Lujan’s single “Falling in Love,” at least once a day for three or four weeks, and during the station’s Sunday-night local artist show, when it debuted last summer.
“It isn’t that I don’t want to support local artists,” Collins says. “We can’t reserve spots for songs that aren’t hits.”
That doesn’t keep Lujan from trying, and trying again.
Back at the studio on Mariposa Street in Denver, Lujan swivels around in the office chair and walks to the rehearsal room.
The microphone is already adjusted and she is ready to tape a “stack,” recording jargon for singing a chorus three times so that it gives the impression of back-up singers.
“You don’t love me, boy, like I love you,” she sings.
She pauses.
“Whewee it’s hot,” she tells her manager. “Let’s listen back.”
After realizing one of her notes was off, she rerecords the same set of lyrics two times through:
“Boy -, Boy -,” she tries again.
Lujan removes her headphones and calls it a day.
“That’s good for now. I’ll listen to it in the morning,” she says.
Staff writer Desiree Belmarez can be reached at 303-954-1211 or at dbelmarez@denverpost.com.
Before we go: Melissa Lujan
My favorite place to practice: In the shower. Everyone says, “Melissa’s in the shower,” because I practice my scales and songs in there.
My inspiration: Love is my main inspiration because it’s something everybody experiences and can relate to.
My favorite instrument: The guitar. I love Santana.
My mentors: My friend Jonathan “JB” Baker, a vocalist for Epic Records, who taught me about studio life, technique and making songs, and Kenneth “Soundz” Coby, he signed Usher and he is just amazing. I learned a lot from him.
Playing on my iPod: I like the old-school R&B like En Vogue and Black Street. That’s when R&B was great, before it was predominantly rap. I want to bring that back.
Misconceptions about me: When people first meet me, they think I’m quiet. They don’t know how much I talk. I think it’s the Gemini in me.
