“Miss Invisible” No More

By KAREN WILSON Palisadian-Post Intern Emeritus She was facing her first press line and she’d made a faux pas: forgetting to remove the backstage pass from around her neck. But instead of acting embarrassed, Marie Digby tossed the pass off to the side and continued smiling for the cameras. ‘I’m such a dork!’ she proclaimed, and something rare happened’a group of journalists bonded with the girl on the other side of the rail. Meet Digby, a 21-year-old Marymount graduate who last week debuted at Manhattan’s Hammerstein Ballroom as the winner of Pantene’s Pro-Voice Contest, which sends one lucky winner (out of 1,200 applicants) to the aptly named Pro-Voice Concert. There, before a crowd of 2,000 New Yorkers and this reporter, Digby shared the stage with bestselling recording artists Ashanti, Fefe Dobson, Paulina Rubio and Skye Sweetnam. The annual event was founded as a way to get women’s voices heard, and this year’s unlikely feminist came in the lithe form of a softspoken tennis player-cum-musician from Mandeville Canyon. A piano player since age 4, as well as a former competitive tennis player, Digby grew up in Pacific Palisades and attended Village School. She began writing songs as a teenager, at a time when she felt lonely, left out and as if she didn’t fit in. ‘I turned to music as a way to express the things I was going through,’ Marie said. By the time she left home for UC Berkeley in 2001, Digby could play piano and guitar, and had stockpiled an arsenal of songs. Socially active and happy with college life, Digby was taking some time off to pursue her music career when she was contacted by a friend in Tennessee, who had seen an ad for Pantene Pro-Voice on television and wanted his pal to enter. ‘I totally didn’t take it seriously,’ Digby recalls. ‘I sent my application in on the day before the deadline.’ ”The shampoo company asked competitors to include music and lyrics for one of their self-penned tunes; Marie selected ‘Miss Invisible’, which described her experiences eating under the bleachers during junior high school lunch to hide from her teenage tormentors. One week later, a Pantene rep phoned and informed Digby that she was one of three girls selected as the Pro-Voice finalists. ‘I almost fell out of bed,’ she said. The ensuing weeks were a whirlwind, as the girls filmed individual music video-style television commercials asking viewers to make one of them the lucky winner. The contest’s grand prize included two tickets to MTV’s Video Music Awards, $5,000 cash, and a chance to perform in the Pro-Voice concert in New York City. Marie’s spot, which aired constantly on MTV and featured the aspiring songwriter playing the piano and singing the ballad, ‘Miss Invisible,’ sparked 30,000 music lovers to go online and vote for her, handing her the Pantene crown. And that’s how, on August 5, Digby found herself somewhere in the bowels of the Hammerstein Ballroom in midtown Manhattan, posing for the cameras on a dingy, ‘this is Hollywood?’ red carpet. Sheepishly, the green Digby told photographers she didn’t know what ‘look straight out’ meant (stare right in front of you, smiling wide) and confessed to this reporter that she was ‘so, so nervous,’ more so about facing the press than she was about her five-song set, which would come later in the evening. She may have thought herself awkward, but Marie’s media outing earned her nothing but praise from the men and women behind the lenses. ‘She’s well-poised, and she’s beautiful. She’s gonna go a long way,’ Retina photographer Carmen Valdes said, as Digby skipped off for a quick break. Later, Digby re-hit the press line, more relaxed this time, thanks to new company. The platinum artists sharing the bill with her that night-Ashanti, Fefe Dobson, Paulina Rubio (accompanied by her beloved dog) and Skye Sweetnam-all descended on the red carpet to preen and give interviews. And they couldn’t have been more fond of the newcomer in their midst. ‘She plays the piano, which is very, very awesome,’ Dobson said. ‘And she’s obviously really passionate to be able to enter a contest, and have that will, so I can’t wait to see [her perform]. She got here. This is a big step and not many people can do that, and I think that it’s an awesome, awesome start.’ ”Also stopping by to sing Marie’s praises was Ashanti, one of the biggest R&B stars in America today. ‘I think it’s a great thing that she’s original,’ she said. ‘That’s very important [in terms of] breaking a new artist into the industry.’ When asked what she thought of Digby’s music and its message of ‘rise above those who get you down,’ Ashanti added that she thought ‘it’s such a positive thing, and it’s important, because you have to have it inside you to be in this industry.’ And did the diva think Marie has it? ‘Yeah,’ she said, winking. Before her set, Digby camped out in the wings with Dobson, who gave the contest winner a pep talk. ‘She told me to get out there and have fun,’ Marie said. ‘I was really nervous, just trying to breathe. But the minute I stepped on stage, the fright was just gone.’ Encouraging shouts from the audience of ‘Okay, Miss Invisible!’ and ‘You go, girl!’ also helped guide Digby as she played and sang her way though five original, deeply personal songs. ”Afterwards, she was rushed backstage to tape an interview with MTV anchor LaLa, as part of a Pro-Voice segment set to air this Sunday at noon on the cable channel. She was then approached by a group of autograph hunters. ‘I think I had more fun signing than they did getting my signature,’ Digby said later. Back in the dressing room, she received congratulations from friends and her parents (Matthew, an attorney and Emiko, a homemaker) and teenage sisters Naomi and Erina, who all took their newly minted singing star out to a nearby diner for some celebratory sweets. ‘It was just an amazing evening,’ Digby said. ”Now back home, she’s pursuing music full-time, both in the recording studio (working with a well-known producer as part of her Pantene prize package) and traveling with a mall tour for up-and-coming musicians, sponsored by YM magazine. ‘My number one goal,’ she says, ‘is to make an album that’s truly a piece of art.’ (Karen Wilson, a PaliHi graduate, began writing for the Palisadian-Post as a seventh grader at Paul Revere. She is spending her summer in New York City as an intern at Entertainment Weekly magazine. She will be a sophomore at UC Santa Barbara this fall.)