VIDEO: Life doesn’t exactly imitate art for young show choir star

Drama and divas rule in McKinley High School on TV's “Glee.”

Not so at McKinley Middle School in southeast Cedar Rapids.

The hit television show returns for its highly anticipated second season Tuesday, following “American Idol” on Fox stations. When last we saw them, the Glee Club members had overcome insurmountable adversity to win at Sectionals, even though saboteurs were working within their ranks and within the faculty to drive the program into oblivion.

That doesn't happen at McKinley Middle School, where the Classic Edition show choir has managed to capture awards, not drama.

“Glee” characters “have really big, puffed-up heads,” says Shawndell Young, 11, of Cedar Rapids. “Our show choir is a team. There's no ‘I' in team. It's us working together as a family. That's how we got third place up to first.”

Shawndell has won a slew of awards, too, capturing “best male vocalist” honors in McKinley's division at recent local show choir competitions with a sound-alike solo on Michael Jackson's hit, “I'll be There.” Videos have been posted on YouTube and www.nepotv.com and a fanpage has been launched on Facebook.

His parents, Edward and ShaNell Young, have fielded inquiries from some daytime talk show hosts, but “nothing is solid,” Edward Young says.

Shawndell, a sixth grader, has enjoyed his first season in show choir, even though most of his previous singing has been at church.

“Other than dancing, it's not really that different,” he says of the new experience. “It's still singing and trying to get a message out.”

Shawndell started singing around age 3, and his parents, who also sing and have musical backgrounds, recognized his talent around age 4.

“Since he was little, he's always been singing around the house,” says Edward Young, 39, who has been a DJ and performed with bands and the University of Iowa's Voices of Soul ensemble. “When he sang at preschool graduation, I said I think he's got something there.”

“Amazing Grace” was Shawndell's favorite song to sing in his earliest years. He still prefers singing and listening to gospel music. He's also starting to sing some of his own compositions and taking piano lessons with the Rev. Cymaron Dawson, senior pastor at Living Waters Kingdom Church, where Shawndell's father serves as an assistant pastor.

“I know music is what I want to do all my life,” Shawndell says.

Former Cedar Rapids Kennedy show choir star Megan Reinking, 28, has made the leap from sequins and solos to the Broadway stage. Part of the Tony Award-winning cast of “Hair,” she's now performing the hit show in London. And while the pilot episode of “Glee” didn't reel her into watching the series, she's glad for the acting opportunities the show provides.

“It is great that there is a television show that can provide television jobs for musical theater actors,” she says. “That is rare, and it is hard for actors specializing mainly in musical theater to break into television.”

Watch Shawndell Young perform:

http://www.nepotv.com/media/205/Shawndell_Young_at_Xtravaganza_2010/