Khalila is Dorval’s idol already

BY MARC LALONDE

marc.lalonde@transcontinental.ca

There can only be one Canadian Idol, but if you asked around the northern sector of Dorval, the competition has already been decided.

It’s Dorval resident Khalila Glanville, and everybody else is just playing for second place. “She’s the best,” one resident said.

Of course, the resident in question is Khalila’s mother, Veronica, so maybe that’s a nugget of information taken best with a grain of salt. But she’s not the only one around these parts thinking along the same lines. “She’s a fantastic singer and she’s beautiful as well. She’s got everything you need to make it,” said Dorval city councillor Margo Heron, who, after years of helming musicals in and around the West Island, knows a little bit about talented performers.

Last week Glanville, 24, who grew up in LaSalle and attended Lachine High School, surrounded by her parents, five brothers, and music. “It started in church for us,” said brother Kirk. “We all are Christians, and that’s where we picked up our love of music, in the choir at church,” he said.

A piano and stereo sit in the front room of the family home and it’s quickly apparent music is the tie that binds with this family; brother Kirk is working on getting into the music business himself. “She’s always loved music,” Veronica said. “I’m so very proud of her. She has made good decisions and those good decisions have helped her.”

Glanville is one of nine remaining contestants on the pop-music reality program, which seeks to uncover rising talent and unleash it upon the world.

On last Thursday’s program, she was one of three contestants up for elimination, but managed to avoid the axe, which instead clipped Toronto native Mila Miller instead. Miller, who had consistently placed in the bottom three since fan voting began, wasn’t able to save herself with a weak rendition of Stevie Wonder’s “Signed, Sealed, Delivered,’ and Glanville lived on to sing another day.

Dorval Mayor Edgar Rouleau said Glanville’s success has made Dorval very proud of her. “She’s one of ours, a Dorval citizen. You’re always proud when someone from your town is doing well, but she could win. We listen to her, and we’re behind her 100 per cent,” Rouleau said.

Because the results are based solely on fan voting, Rouleau exhorted West Islanders — not just Dorval residents — to vote for Khalila by calling a toll-free number during Canadian Idol broadcasts and for two hours after the show tonight. “I would say to people all across the West Island, ‘please vote for Khalila, because she is very talented.’”쇓