Chalynn Fields, who is equally at ease singing in an elevator or on stage, will get the chance to perform before her largest audience yet when she sings "The Star-Spangled Banner" before the Detroit Tigers play the Baltimore Orioles on April 30.

The game will be played at 7:05 p.m. on what is designated as Wayne State University Night at Comerica Park. Fields, who won the inaugural Wayne Idol contest, was granted the opportunity to sing at Comerica Park as one of the prizes for the contest. Fields also reined as Spring Queen in the annual "Funeral for Ol' Man Winter", and opened up for rap artist Common at the annual Mad Anthony spring concert.

A freshman majoring in fashion design and business, Fields has been singing since the age of six. Typical of many great singers, she also grew up singing in the choir at Greater Ebenezer Baptist Church in Detroit through to the classical choir at Lincoln High School in Ypsilanti, where she graduated.

She didn't plan on entering the Wayne Idol contest, until a fellow resident at Wayne State's North Hall urged her to do so. Fields finished as an alternate to the 10 finalists, to her disappointment.

But as fate would have it, one of the finalists didn't show up, so Fields' disappointment turned into another opportunity to shine. From there Fields went on to win the competition, sealing it by singing a song that her sister Marquesha Woods wrote.

Fields, who has nine brothers and sisters, is closest to Woods, who is 10 years older, but more like a best friend. Woods is like a performance barometer that lets Fields know instantly how well she performs.

Singing to a potentially packed house of 40,000 fans plus a live television audience would make most nervous. But Fields says she'll be okay with one caveat: "As long as I have my sister there," she said.

Wayne State University is a premier institution of higher education offering more than 350 academic programs through 13 schools and colleges to more than 31,000 students in metropolitan Detroit.