Pop singer Emii carries Youngstown with her

People who knew Emily Morrison when she lived in Youngstown aren’t the least bit surprised with her burgeoning success as a pop singer.

Morrison — who now goes by Emii — spent her teen years here and was very active at The Youngstown Playhouse in the late ’90s and early ’00s.

She now lives in Los Angeles, where her career as a singer is starting to happen.

Her dance-club single “Mr. Romeo,” featuring Snoop Dogg, is making noise as a follow-up to her 2010 single, “Magic.” Both songs are on Emii’s debut EP, available on iTunes. The songs, which Emii wrote, range from Lady Gaga-style club music to high-gloss pop rock, a l Paramore. Check it out at emii.net.

Snoop Dogg, by the way, will be at Club Gossip in Austintown tonight (story on page C7). A few dozen tickets remain available.

Emii lived in Youngstown as a high school student, but the city couldn’t contain her drive to succeed. She did a lot of shuttling back and forth to New York in those days for auditions.

Starr McClure of the Youngstown Playhouse youth theater knew Morrison then and vividly remembers her impressive talent and drive.

“We knew she was really talented back then,” McClure said. “She had an amazing voice. She could hit high notes that were major soprano notes.”

Morrison started at Ursuline High School but spent only a few months there. “That was about the time I became relentlessly serious about pursuing music as a career, so my parents ended up home-schooling me through high school in order for me to focus more of my attention on music,” she said in an e-mail.

She credits the city with helping to shape her.

“Growing up in Youngstown did [and still does] have a big effect on the person I became and aim to become, professionally and personally,” she said. “I believe it laid the foundation for my personality and work ethic, and although I feel I grew the most as an artist while I lived in New York and Los Angeles, I know I grew the most as a person in Youngstown.”

Most of Morrison’s family and her best friend still live in Youngstown, and she comes back for visits every few months.

Her Ohio background seems to be inescapable.

“My manager actually grew up in Ohio as well — funny moving to New York City, then LA, to end up working with a fellow Ohioan — and we share a lot of the same mind-set,” she said. “The more you get to know the general LA mind-set, the more obvious the Ohio foundation becomes.”

Emii will carry another reminder of Youngstown with her wherever she goes — her tattoos. “I have only ever gotten tattoos done at Squirrelly’s [in Hubbard] while visiting in Ohio ... so even my body art is Youngstown area-based,” she said.

With her talent, success might appear to be inevitable for Emii. But her unyielding drive gets an equal amount of credit. Now that her efforts are paying off, Emii is taking nothing for granted.

“It’s almost overwhelming,” she said of her success. “I guess I could say that I feel a mixture of extreme gratitude, excitement and relief ... but mostly it’s sheer determination to continue. I have so much more to learn and so much farther to go, but every step forward is a celebration.”