By Jonathan BellArdent performer Delijah Symonds-Johnson will seize any chance to take to the stage — even though it’s torture to be left wanting more.“Every time I sing in a concert or act, it’s never enough,” the 18-year-old Bermuda College said, just before appearing in last night’s performance of ‘Camwood on the Leaves’ at City Hall.Delijah jumped at the chance to appear as an “African mob scene extra” in the play by firebrand Nigerian author Wole Soyinka.And local listeners will soon get a better picture of the Sandys teen’s style when the song ‘Misfits’ goes on the airwaves.Penned with five other members of the Developing Artists Programme offered by PlayList Management, the song was written during an intensive summer course in Atlanta where young artists were trained in behind-the-scenes music industry work.“I don’t know where I get it from,” said Delijah of her drive to perform. “I’m a little crazy, so I fit in with the whole dramatic part of it. The reason we chose that song titles is because all of us are different. For teens in Bermuda, it’s like everybody’s trying to be like everybody else. But we’re different ones.”The song, which extols “colouring outside the lines”, and questions if normality even exists, will be aired once the master tape comes over from Atlanta.For Delijah, spending a week abroad with five people she didn’t know before, practicing how to exercise while singing and working until 3am in the studio was “great, absolutely amazing”.The Berkeley Institute graduate spent her school days taking part in every concert and play that came her way.Now studying drawing and two-dimensional arts at the Bermuda College, Delijah is determined to fund her way into her place in next year’s Up With People, the international performing group of young adults that spends a year going around the world.“They go to about 20 different countries. In each place, each person stays with a host family, so you learn other peoples’ cultures, but during the day everybody meets up to sing and dance and act, so it’s the best of each world.”The experience comes at a hefty price: around $30,000.Already accepted, Delijah was, as she put it, “not in that financial state at the time — but I was dying to do it, so I deferred”.Locals may have seen her, along with father Amori Browne, mother Hazel Symonds and grandmother Hazel Sabouret, dressed in costume at games stalls for the Dockyard Harbour Nights — raising money, bit by bit, to help pay for Delijah’s trip next year.She will join other artists on November 8 for a benefit concert at the Southampton Princess Hotel to fund the Up With People trip and showcase local talent.Ms Symonds said their aim goes beyond just paying for a trip on the global education programme.“We want to start a scholarship for Bermudian children wanting to go on Up With People,” she explained.“It’s probably more important for Bermudian children than most to see the reality of how people live in other parts of the world.”She grew emotional as she described how Delijah helped support her during the harrowing aftermath of her older brother Dijon’s bike accident, in which he was seriously injured.“Teenagers go through phases of being rebels — but she was so great the whole way through. I can’t tell you how much it meant.”Delijah, whose career dream is to perform with Disney and on Broadway, plans to study musical theatre and entertainment law, starting 2014.To find out more, e-mail lijahuwp@hotmail.com.