Big Happenings For Dylan Jenet

Dylan Jenet, a 16-year-old from Sag Harbor, is anything but an average teenage girl. The up-and-coming pop and R&B singer and songwriter, already a Broadway star, was just signed by Universal Republic Records in Los Angeles, California. Music icon Stevie Wonder will serve as her executive producer.

Ms. Jenet, who was born Dylan Jenet Collins, has been singing as far back as she can remember. In fact, she’s actually been singing since even before she can remember.

“Everyone says when I was a baby I used to sing along with commercials on the TV,” laughed Ms. Jenet during a telephone interview from her new home in L.A. last Monday.

The young star—who has been compared vocally to the likes of Christina Aguilera, Beyoncé, Alicia Keys, Katy Perry and Adele—began singing in local theatrical productions, such as in the Bay Street Theatre’s musical “Once On This Island” in Sag Harbor when she was 6 and in Manhattan’s Schubert Theatre’s live radio play “It’s A Wonderful Life” soon thereafter. Very early on, her vocal talent was recognized as being meant for much more, and the young performer was Broadway bound.

“A cast member from one of my plays told me I should audition for the part of Nala in ‘The Lion King’ on Broadway,” she said. “So I did.”

The only problem for Ms. Jenet was that there was a certain height requirement for the part of Young Nala. She had to wait 6 months, and a few inches growth, before getting the part.

“They told me to keep coming back and when I finally measured to the right height, I would get the part,” she said. “One day I went in and they told me I was tall enough and the part was mine.”

That was only the beginning of Ms. Jenet singing professionally. Shortly after her debut on Broadway, at the tender age of 8, she won the “The Star of Tomorrow” award from the Apollo Theater in Harlem.

At the age of 11, the stage got even larger for Ms. Jenet. She was asked to perform at not only the Democratic National Convention in Denver, Colorado, in 2008 but also as a soloist at President Barack Obama’s Neighborhood Inaugural Ball in Washington, DC, with the Ray Chew Orchestra that same year.

“It was amazing,” she said. “I couldn’t believe it. To play at just one of those events would have been great, but playing at both was just amazing.”

One of the best parts of singing at such events wasn’t just the performing, she said, but also the people she has gotten to meet. Just seeing the musical legends there—such as Beyoncé, Alicia Keys and Shakira—was enough to leave Ms. Jenet starstruck, she said.

“I was so nervous, I couldn’t even speak,” she recalled. “They just walked up to me and said hi and I was basically hyperventilating.”

And then there was the Inauguration’s biggest star, President Obama himself.

“Being able to say I met President Obama is just crazy,” she added.

The Montaukett Native American has been busy since. She’s appeared in movies and television, and picked up a Best Pop Recording Artist of the Year at the 13th Annual Native American Music Awards when she was 13.

After reaching out to Mr. Wonder through Facebook a few years ago, she got the chance to meet him face-to-face at age 11. They were both backstage at a concert at Jones Beach in New York when he asked her to sing something for him. After that, the two artists kept in touch.

The two sang together this past December at the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles for Mr. Wonder’s 17th annual House Of Toys Benefit Concert. Since, the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award winner—who has earned a whopping 22 Grammys—decided it was time for his protégé to get signed to a label. He went straight to the head of Universal Republic—which represents artists such as Akon, Drake, Nicki Minaj and Florence + The Machine—and gave his personal recommendation for Ms. Jenet.

Once she was signed, it was time for the singer/songwriter and her family—parents André and Felicia Collins, and siblings Jacob, Samantha and Morgan—to pack up their life in Sag Harbor and move to Northridge, California. In the few months since, Ms. Jenet has hit the ground running, putting all her focus into getting her music out into the world for others to hear. From meeting to meeting, recording and producing songs, each day for her is spent more productively than the last.

“I thought I was busy in New York,” she said. “But I am so much busier in L.A.”

Ms. Jenet predicted that she’ll have a single to release in the next few months. For now, she’s busy working toward getting an album together and making connections in the music industry. So far, her life is going even better than she had planned it.

“I’m doing what I love,” she said. “The best part of all of this, is the fact that I have been waiting to do this since I was like 6 years old and now I’m actually doing it.”