In the new film, Palmer plays Olivia Hill, daughter of the Divinity Church choir director Vi Rose Hill (Latifah). The problem is, Olivia is the talented lead singer of the choir who yearns to break free of her mother’s traditional ideas about the choir’s direction and her love directed at the town’s bad boy.

By KEVIN CHILL HEARD

Managing Editor

When we first saw 11 year-old Keke Palmer, she was a young word wiz, spellin’ up fly vocab like “prestidigitation” as the title character in the wildly inspirational film “Akeelah and the Bee.” Now Palmer is a beautiful and well-adjusted 19 year-old, holding down acting and singing duties opposite acting and singing heavyweights Queen Latifah and Dolly Parton in “Joyful Noise.”

In the new film, Palmer plays Olivia Hill, daughter of the Divinity Church choir director Vi Rose Hill (Latifah). The problem is, Olivia is the talented lead singer of the choir who yearns to break free of her mother’s traditional ideas about the choir’s direction and her love directed at the town’s bad boy.

To make matters worse, town spunky matriarch G.G. Sparrow (Parton) also wants to spice things up as far as the choir is concerned, but is the groovy granny of Olivia’s intended boo, the town’s bad boy.

With finally winning the upcoming, and all-important, National Joyful Noise Competition as a goal – not to mention, Olivia trying to get all cozy with the enemy – the scene is set for Palmer’s character to lift her voice and be heard.

With a chance to sit down with Palmer and talk about her growth in Hollywood and her role in “Joyful Noise,” I was glad to see that she is as grounded as she is talented.

As to how the native Chicagoan got her start in the business, she went on to explain, “My parents were reading in the newspaper about ‘Lion King’ auditions, and they knew I liked to sing … So, they asked me [did I want to go and audition], and I said, ‘Yeah, that sounds like a fun thing to me, why not?’ So I went down and auditioned and out of, like, four hundred kids, I made it down to the top 15, and then I was out. I was a little bit sad, but I thought in my mind, ‘This is really cool. Is there any way that I can do this again?’ And, so, my mom has always been the type of mother to try to do whatever her kids wanted, she would try to find or make a way for them to get it. And that’s pretty much what she did.”

At the tender age of nine, Palmer was cast in the role of Latifah’s niece in “Barbershop 2,” forming a bond that would not be forgotten by the Queen.

“Shortly after I did ‘Barber Shop 2,’ maybe, like, a few months or so, I did “American Juniors,” which was a little kid’s version of ‘American Idol,’” Palmer recalled. “After that, I visited California and a few major agencies wanted to sign me, and that let my parents know, ‘Hey, well, maybe we should give this a real try.’ Through that process, I would see Queen Latifah as my career kept going and going. I would see her at premieres or at different parties and stuff like that. She would always be very kind to me. She would be like, ‘Wow, I see you doing this [and that], and I just can’t believe how you’re growing up.’ It always made me happy that she remembered me.”

When asked did that prior relationship with Latifah make her locked to play Latifah’s character’s daughter in this movie, Palmer laughed, but admitted that when she got the part, the film’s director Todd Graff told her that Latifah said to him when he was casting the film, said, “I know that my word may not mean everything, and I know this is your movie to cast, but if my word did mean something, I would like Keke Palmer to play my daughter.” Palmer appreciatively beamed “That made my heart so happy, [to know she said that], for her to go out of her way to say something like that meant a lot.”

Again responding to the question if that gave her an advantage, she concluded, “I think it probably helped, but Todd is such his own person. He wanted to make sure I was the right person [for the role], so I went through, like, three or four auditions before I got the part, which I appreciated. I don’t want anybody giving me a part just because I know somebody. I want them to give me the part, maybe because somebody told them about me, but also because they think I’m good for the role.”

Joyful Noise opens nationwide January 13, and is rated PG-13.