If Lo-tel’s well-known 90s teenage anthem Teenager of the Year made famous by television teen-drama Dawson’s Creek was transformed into an actual accolade, Elen Levon would be a serious contender.

And whilst the young lady may not be quite old enough to remember the television series that was, she appears to be forging her own path in the music industry on local and international scale.

Born and bred in Sydney, Levon is regarded as a modern day triple threat – a young lady who sings well, dances fiercely, is fashion-savvy and is beautiful – a music label’s marketing dream. Her introduction into the multifaceted music industry was nothing short of a whirlwind.

Starting off in a pop group at the age of 13, it was there she met her management who took her to Ministry of Sound and she signed on the spot.

While still in school she released her first single, a challenging time that called for maturity, the ability to multitask and navigate the dance pop music landscape across Sydney.

“It was very hard to be devoted to a very academic school and to what was going to be my career for the rest of my life. I am home schooled now so it is easy because I can bring my work with me everywhere. It’s still a process to juggle. I want to do this for as long as I can, so starting at this age has been a blessing for me and I get to learn about the industry earlier which definitely helps. I think Sydney is just like the rest of the world, generated around popular music. I think dance is definitely the big picture in pop music right now, it’s going off on the radio and at clubs.”

In the last 18 months, Levon has toured alongside the likes of 50 Cent, G-Unit, Lil’ Kim, Snoop Dogg and Taio Cruz, motivating her to continue working hard and strive for success and stardom.

In 2011 she told The Daily Telegraph that she wanted to be a ‘superstar’, an all-too alluring concept with many implications but something she  feels she now understands and can most definitely handle.

“I have loved the idea of the word ‘superstar’ ever since I was little. I was a little show-off creating a stage in the middle of restaurants and making everyone listen to me sing and watch me dance. I had watched Michael Jackson and Madonna and because people labeled them as a ‘Superstar’ I needed to do that [label herself] and wanted to be whatever that was. So I think I have stuck to that promise. In order to succeed in this business you need a good team around you who are doing it for the same reasons as you, and I am really lucky to have that.”

Continuing to strive after that superstar status, Levon has just wrapped up her ‘Naughty Nights’ tour which saw her support Marvin Priest across Australia and now she has released her new single Like A Girl (In Love) – a vibrant dance track produced by James Ash of Rogue Traders fame and shot music video on location in the beautiful rural outskirts of Cambodia.

“James Ash and his wife Melinda are an amazing team. Together they wrote and produced the song. James is very talented so hearing about all the work he had done made me so excited to write the song. It built a great energy in the studio. I also love making music videos. It was a three day shoot and I felt very comfortable on this set with such amazing people to work with around me. Cambodia is an incredible country. It was so eye opening because we stayed in bungalows and for a place with hardly any city, all of the nature shone through. It made it such a wonderful culture and welcoming place to be in, I will never forget it.”

Featuring a very distinct sense of sass and style in her music videos, Levon takes immense pride and creativity in her choice of fashion and styling as a personal, cathartic and expressive kind of art and extension of her personality.

From popular luxury brands to niche local designers, her enthusiasm for the fashion industry stems from her mother, who incidentally is a fashion designer,

“Fashion is another form of art for me. I love it so much as I grew up around my Mum being a fashion designer herself. It plays a big part in my career and I am always thinking about which outfit is next, but my style definitely differs when it comes to everyday style. I would call myself comfortable, casual and trendy. I love throwing on jeans and I wear boots religiously. My favourite local brands at the moment are Bassike and Willow. One of my favourite international brands would be Balmain. Other favourite designers of mine are Rick Owens, Valentin Yudashkin and Givenchy.”

As fans of the dance-pop artist can see, Levon’s career to date has been short but seriously sweet and verging on the sublime.

In December 2011, she flew to Beijing, China to perform at the request of the government for the Global World Music Festival, an extraordinary experience she will never forget,

“Being invited by the Chinese government to perform at the Beijing Spring Festival where I was broadcast to a billion people was one of the most incredible moments of my career. I performed my new single Like A Girl (In Love) and a song called Sun Burns Out produced and written by Robert Conley, Brian McFadden and I. We chose this song because the Chinese people base a lot of their culture around the sun. I also learnt the chorus and second verse in Mandarin which was fun and challenging! It was a mind blowing experience and Asian culture definitely knows how to put on a good New Years.”

Elen Levon’s future in the dance-pop music industry is most definitely looking bold and bright, whether it be making a name for herself in her local hometown of Sydney or travelling throughout Asia and Los Angeles to workshop potential tracks, collaborate with fellow up-and-coming artists or carry on gaining some good old life experience to further her already impressive career at her youthful age all of which will push her closer to achieving her dream collaborations and in the near future, a debut album.

“I will always be working towards an album. I have been in the recording studio writing different songs and still discovering different sounds I like… I have been writing a lot with some incredibly people lately. I will be going to Los Angeles soon and I lot of writing has been set up for me there which is a surprise. I am so excited. I would absolutely love to collaborate with Madonna, Pharrell Williams, Bruno Mars and Chris Brown. The list goes on and on.”

Like A Girl (In Love) by Elen Levon is available for download on iTunes.

Image via The Daily Telegraph.