Lynn songbird flying south

LYNN – Amanda Mena, the 12-year-old who galvanized the city last June by winning the “La Voz Kids” Spanish-language singing competition, is days away from traveling to Mexico to record her first song.In a Friday interview along with her father, Martin, and mother, Miosoti, Mena said she has signed a deal with recording company Universal Latino and has written six songs – three in English, three in Spanish. She said she will shoot a music video to accompany the first song she records.?I am not sure on when the song will be released but it will be awesome. My family and everyone is working so hard,” she said.Now a Breed Middle School sixth-grader, Mena was attending Cobbet School and singing for fun at home in 2013 when her older brother, Eluid, a Bunker Hill Community College student, urged her to enter the Telemundo Spanish-language television station?s version of “The Voice” singing show.She competed over a two-month-long period, including a trip to New York City, but ultimately did not complete the competition process. Her mother said Mena?s age was a factor in the family?s decision to step back from the 2013 contest.?We wanted to think about it more,” she said.Thinking turned into action last year when Mena entered the “La Voz” contest again and put all of her heart and voice into the competition. A singer since the age of 8 who loves the late Whitney Houston, Mena sent a video to contest judges and won the competition last June. Lynn embraced her success with praise from elected officials and adoration from Cobbet and Greater Lynn YMCA fans.?The city received her like a queen,” said Martin Mena.Mena is a Fenway Park maintenance worker who came to the United States in 1995 from the Dominican Republic. His wife came to the U.S. in 2002 and both parents said they are pushing their daughter to focus on twin goals – singing and going to college.?School has to be the top priority,” Martin Mena said.Mena wants to attend the Berklee College of Music in Boston but she will pack her math homework and other assignments with her clothes next week before flying to Mexico for three days. She has already met with music industry representatives in New York, Miami and Atlanta, and she will join this year?s La Voz finalists on the show in late May.?I think I can help them. I have been where they are now,” she said.Mena sang at Fenway last May and August and she sang at a political rally last fall for Democratic candidate – now U.S. Rep. Seth Moulton – with Vice President Joe Biden at Moulton?s side.?She is a very mature kid,” said Breed Vice Principal Megan Franco.Mena said she draws on influences as legendary as Ella Fitzgerald, Tina Turner and Michael Jackson to temper her song writing. She works out some songs on the piano and focuses her creativity on the lives of kids she knows.?I like to write about the stuff people go through,” she said.