Utah
Utah musician moves to Los Angeles following TikTok success
Alayna Grace Thompson, of North Salt Lake, lately moved to Los Angeles to pursue her dream of turning into an expert musician. (Joseph Lee)
Estimated learn time: 4-5 minutes
NORTH SALT LAKE — The favored social networking app TikTok has made a sensation out of scrappy, 22-year-old Alayna Thompson, a musician from North Salt Lake whose current success has led her to Los Angeles to pursue a dream.
Thompson, identified professionally as Alayna Grace, was posting to TikTok 3 times a day for months with out breaking her 300-follower document. However her consistency paid off when one video of her singing a canopy of Sam Smith’s “Make It to Me” went viral. Within the final 12 months, her following went from roughly 300 to greater than 840,000 individuals.
Earlier than her TikTok success, Thompson tried out for “The Voice” a number of occasions, however did not make it. Nevertheless, after going viral, “American Idol” approached her and requested her to audition. After getting by way of the primary few rounds of the present, she determined to step again and go a unique course, although she’s open minded about occurring the present sooner or later.
When different TikTok creators and music producers from Los Angeles started reaching out to her for collaborative work, she and her husband determined they might transfer there throughout his hole 12 months earlier than making use of for doctor assistant applications.
“I … love the creativeness of L.A., as a result of everybody right here is type of doing the identical factor as you … All of them have these very inventive passions for themselves and it is like a really go-go-go place, so it is tremendous cool to be surrounded by that,” Thompson mentioned.
One of many musicians she has collaborated with is from Provo, with L.A. connections. Oba Bonner is a part of the Bonner Household and is understood by his musical artist/producer identify Obeeyay.
He moved from Utah to L.A. as a freshman in highschool to pursue music professionally. Each day after faculty, he would go to a recording studio to shadow Grammy-award profitable producers and songwriters who had labored with artists comparable to JoJo, Queen Latifah and Woman GaGa. He even labored in some periods with Queen Latifah and JoJo.
Obeeyay’s present focus is acting at live shows and he was lately signed to a document label referred to as Wonderwild Information. And he and Thompson collaborated on her upcoming single, “Advised Me To not Fear.”
The music business is extraordinarily aggressive, however Obeeyay mentioned he thinks Thompson units herself aside by posting her music so constantly on social media.
“First off, she’s extremely proficient, however what’s extra essential and most essential in my view is simply being in keeping with it and persevering with to grind and to work exhausting, and that is what she does,” he mentioned.
He additionally mentioned her character — and the truth that she’s an important individual — units her aside, as effectively.
Each day, Thompson movies and posts movies on-line, writes music and sends out emails to get model offers. She additionally networks with individuals and emails labels and producers. Along with her each day pursuits, she has launched a number of unique and canopy songs on Spotify and Apple Music and has filmed music movies which might be on YouTube.
Within the long-term, Thompson desires to maintain herself financially by way of music, by touring and being signed to a document label. Her subsequent short-term aim is to get considered one of her unique songs to go viral on social media.
A giant spotlight for her in her profession, up to now, was with the ability to open for Colbie Caillat at considered one of Caillat’s live shows in November of 2021.
“Simply with the ability to do music each single day and truly receives a commission for it’s insane to me, in order that’s one other large spotlight. … It is simply one thing I by no means would have imagined taking place,” Thompson mentioned.
Thompson mentioned her model is a combination between Olivia Rodrigo and Tate McRae. She can also be impressed by Beyonce.
Pursuing music is not simple. Thompson mentioned it is exhausting as a result of she usually compares herself to others within the business and focuses on areas wherein they’re doing effectively and the place she feels she’s missing.
In order for you it dangerous sufficient, it’s going to occur.
–Alayna Thompson, rising artist
“I believe one factor that is helped me is I even have a factor on my white board the place it says, ‘Be thankful for the place you are at,’” Thompson mentioned. “And so I at all times attempt to remind myself, ‘I am right here proper now, and I have to be grateful for … what I’ve come from,’ as a result of a 12 months in the past, I’d have by no means thought I’d also have a following in any respect, and so I needs to be grateful that I’ve that, you already know.”
Thompson mentioned she would encourage anybody making an attempt to pursue a dream and hasn’t seen it take flight but to “hold being persistent, hold being constant in what you are doing. … In order for you it dangerous sufficient, it’s going to occur.”
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Utah
Utah family creates 'Giving Gallery' to spread joy of art
COTTONWOOD HEIGHTS, Utah — You might have heard of little libraries in neighborhoods, but have you heard of Giving Galleries?
A family in Cottonwood Heights is using their love for art to bring joy to those around them.
On the corner of Promenade and Camino is Abigail Bradshaw.
“I’m standing next to an art gallery, my art gallery. That’s my house,” she proudly said.
Abigail is showing her tiny art gallery filled with pieces made by her family and others who want to contribute. This home used to be her great-grandmother’s.
“She was an artist, and so, I wanted to continue that legacy,” said Katie Bradshaw, Abigail’s mom. They found a box, painted it, propped it up, and filled it with tiny art. Anyone can just look at the art, pick up something they like, or put their own piece inside.
Miles Jacobsen is a friend who saw what the Bradshaws were doing and added his artwork to the box.
For people who want to make their own masterpieces, there is also a box of free art supplies in the gallery box. You can come by to pick up paint, paintbrushes, and tiny canvasses to create your own art, which you can drop off at the “giving gallery” to bring joy to someone else.
“I feel really glad that people come and get some art and put it in there,” said Abigail.
Filling the box is something Katie does with her kids.
“I hope that they can carry this with them, that they continue sharing art, no matter where they are,” she said.
Spreading joy to everyone who walks by, and letting the cycle continue.
“I want them to feel happy and glad that they got some, so they could return some back here,” added Abigail.
Utah
Amid traffic, Utah walked to Leafs’ arena pregame
TORONTO — The Utah Hockey Club said players were forced to walk to their game against the Maple Leafs after their bus got stuck in Toronto traffic Sunday night.
The team posted a video on social media of team members walking to Scotiabank Arena, with player Maveric Lamoureux saying the bus was “not moving at all.”
Several city streets had been closed during the day for an annual Santa Claus parade.
The Maple Leafs earned their fourth consecutive win by defeating Utah 3-2.
The viral incident prompted Ontario Premier Doug Ford to call the congestion “embarrassing” and “unacceptable,” highlighting his government’s plan to address the city’s gridlock through bike lane legislation.
It wasn’t the first time a Toronto visitor had to ditch their vehicle to make it to an event on time.
In June, former One Direction band member Niall Horan had to walk through traffic to get to his concert at Scotiabank Arena.
Utah
Utah Highway Patrol responds to your suggestions on making Utah roads safer
SALT LAKE CITY — FOX 13 News is Driven to Change and that includes bringing you reports on important topics like road rage, construction, and wrong-way drivers. During our coverage, we continually ask for any questions or concerns you may have along Utah’s roadways.
The feedback has gotten an enormous response, so FOX 13 sat down with Lieutenant Cameron Roden on Good Day Utah to help address input we have been getting, from the perspective of Utah Highway Patrol.
Speeding in Utah, there’s so much of it, and then you can sometimes say that that leads to tailgating, which may lead to road rage incidents. What are you seeing out there in terms of speed and what can we do to lessen the effects of that?
Lt. Cameron Roden: Speed is our number one thing that we see. That’s our number one traffic stop that we make, and we know that it leads to the majority of crashes in the state of Utah. So we definitely put an emphasis on speed and it does lead to other things. Not just crashes. It leads to road rage and other things .So, as far as what changes can we make, we need to start with ourselves, and really say, ‘Hey, do I have a problem?’ You know, we just need to start with ourselves and not think that it’s something else’s problem. If we slow our speeds ourselves, and then it’ll start to to catch on and people will do that speed limit. So, but the legislature has definitely taken some steps to help us address, especially the the speeds that are those excessive speeds where we have that one zero five law now that addresses those speeds and increases fines and and hopefully discourages people from those extreme speeds.
Some of our viewers talked about maybe capping some of the speed limits for truck drivers. Is that something that’s even feasible?
You know, that would be something that would have to go through that, that legislative process to see whether we that would be something that would help. But ultimately, if we we start with ourselves, hopefully that will make that change and reduce crashes and fatalities.
There are things being done to try and intervene and stop wrong-way drivers before they happen. But some of our viewers propose things like spikes. What are your thoughts on implementing something like that?
We’ve had over the last several years, a rash of wrong-way drivers, and it’ll come in onesie twos, and then we’ll go for a period of time without that. And so, but this spike over the last couple of years has caused us to to create a task force to look at wrongly driving what things can be done. And so getting all these stakeholders together between UDOT and Highway Safety, looking at what technologies and things that could be implemented, and and things like, wrong way detection cameras. Those are some things that are being actually used in the state of Utah right now to help us spot those and and advance signage, getting people to realize they’re going the wrong way and turn around. The the spike strips have actually been talked about in our task force a little bit. And if something like that would even be, it is that technology available right now. And as what we could actually implement in the state of Utah, there’s nothing that really fits the bill right now because of our environment. We have our snow plows. We have snow and things like that. Something like that really wouldn’t be practical right now.
Probably the most talked about topic that we’ve received was distracted driving, texting while driving. You went out, I saw on the UHP social media page, that you guys just driving and you look to your right and left and you can find someone texting. What kind of enforcement do we have against distracted driving specifically on your phone?
This is something that we like you said, we see it every day. We go out to crashes,and and we may suspect that a driver may be distracted. And so, it’s something that’s definitely under-reported. It’s it’s a bigger problem than than the numbers really show.And so not only do we address it during our normal patrols.Our officers are seeing it, and addressing it while they’re out there.But we’ll also do targeted patrols where the highway safety office actually gives out additional funds for that targeted enforcement, where we’ll get an unmarked vehicle. We go out driving down the roads where we try to spot these vehicles and and get them stopped because those are those are a big danger on our roadways where our attention and our focus needs to be on driving.
If you have ideas or suggestions for how to make Utah’s roadways safer click here to be taken to our Driven to Change form. There you can share your ideas or suggestions.
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Share your ideas on how to make Utah’s roads safer
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