Source: Channel 10 Tampa Bay
TAMPA, Fla. — She’s not very tall. Her frame is slight. From the outside, Janicia Jordan doesn’t appear to be the type of kid who possesses a booming voice.
Just listen to the teenager sing for a few moments and it’s hard to forget.
Enter Bake More Pies.
“We have a special place in our heart for charities that help young people get a leg up in life,” the company’s founder, Cordes Owen, said.
Bake More Pies is a small media company based in Tampa. Owen was in attendance four years ago to stream the annual Boys and Girls Club fundraising dinner. Jordan happened to be singing the national anthem that night. It was so moving Owen couldn’t forget it.
“Me and my team, we were looking around like, ‘Man. I think she just beat Whitney Houston,’” he said. “We were like, ‘Who is that’?”
He offered her the chance to come to his Tampa studio to record a song. Jordan sings at the Boys & Girls Clubs quite often. It’s a passion she’s seemingly always had.
“If I’m feeling down, I listen to music,” she said. “I sound so good and it makes me happy.”
She recently made the trip to Bake More Pies. Media professionals set up the studio with hanging lights and soft backdrops. The teen stood alone behind a microphone and belted out Beyonce’s hit, “I Was Here.”
Having the chance to sing and record her voice in a professional setting was exhilarating.
“I felt free. I was kind of nervous a little but I knew I was going to kill it,” she said. “They offered me love. They brought me in like warm arms.”
The video is the perfect tool for a teen to pitch herself to prospective colleges. Bake More Pies wanted to help the young singer achieve her dream of going to college to study music.
“We just love doing that,” said Owen, whose company has hosted big names in the entertainment industry for video shoots in the past.
It’s been life-changing for an already confident teen.
“I feel so happy right now. I (could) cry right now, but I’m not going to do it,” Jordan said. “I really appreciate them so much.”
Bake More Pies has been in business for seven years and is a top-five finalist for Small Business of the Year for the second year in a row. The award is given annually by the Tampa Chamber. Winners will be announced in November.
Bake More Pies will set up a Go Fund Me account for Jordan in the future to help raise money for school.
“Singing is my everything,” Jordan, 17, said. “My instrument is my voice.”
She’s talented, bright, and determined. The high school senior loves gospel and R&B music and has dreams of going to college and eventually singing professionally.
