Pop Goes Her World

That type of wistful, ever-hopeful comment is not uncommon when Ciria discusses her music career. Since those almost-Disney days, she's been told that she needed to be a "star" by an early age if she was going to make it in the world of pop music -- a notion that resonates with a quick spin of the radio dial or a scan of teen magazines. So while Ciria keeps busy with the Borders gigs and starring in a once-a-week videocast on FirstEntertainment.Com -- an Internet broadcast that usually includes a variety of clips of the artist, from prepping for a performance of the national anthem at a Rockies game to applying pre-concert makeup and chatting about relationships -- she's also hard at work in the studio, recording a handful of tunes she'll relay to Interscope and anyone else who might be interested. The hardest part of the whole music business, she explains, is "reminding myself that I can really do this, that I have a prayer and that it's within my reach.

"This industry is so incredibly competitive, and because I've chosen to do pop music, my age is a huge factor. It's awful and I hate it, but it is what it is, and I've known that since I was fourteen years old. And [industry types] reminded me when I was sixteen years old, and then they reminded me again when I was nineteen, twenty and 21. They will not hesitate to tell you that if you're 26 years old and you think you have a prayer of doing this, you're wrong. Even though I think to myself, 'That's crazy, that's ridiculous, I'm going to do this until I'm dead,' it's hard to look at someone who has the power to at least help create a career for you and hear them say that."

Mark A. Manger

Waiting for her star to fall: Local singer Ciria Arellano.

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2 pm, Saturday, September 2

Free

303-933-6787

Borders Books & Music, Southwest Plaza, 8501 West Bowles Avenue, Littleton

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Besides, Ciria points out, her time clock has not been completely used up. "I still have a couple of years," she says. She says it without any of the false sunniness of a naive young performer, or an industry puppet, or a Mousketeer. She says it with the necessary optimism of someone who truly believes that hard work -- and talent -- mean something, even in a competitive world. B