The Profile: Melinda Doolittle Tennessee's Favorite American Idol By Harry Chapman The intimate Boiler Room Theater in The Factory at Franklin is a long way from the bright lights of the American Idol stage in Hollywood. The brick walls and empty stage are the backdrop for my first visit with everybody’s favorite Idol, Melinda Doolittle. The Boiler Room is a refuge for Melinda. In the past, when she would come back to Tennessee after being on the road as a background singer or working in the recording studio, she would come to the theater to recharge her batteries. “I could come here and play a character,” Melinda recalls. “If people didn’t like it, I could just blame the character. It made it so much easier on me, and it was just so much fun to escape.” Melinda Doolittle is all about fun. The better she knows you the more silly she becomes. Her shyness is charming. As we begin to visit, her smile draws me in, and the warmth of her personality spreads. On this day, Melinda has just returned from a Las Vegas vacation with her mother. She is hoarse, probably from the change in climate. I have to listen closely to her soft voice. Charm is something Melinda has always possessed. Her voice, well that’s another story. She admits to being tone deaf as a child. As all children do, she was trying to find something where she could shine. First, it was as a gymnast. – something she says she was awful at. Then, skating … but she says she had two left feet. She then decided she loved music. People would let her be in their choirs, but she was told to lip sync. She had charisma, a great smile and she was fun. But she could not sing. “I would say ‘mom, I want to sing out loud,’ and she would say, ‘Baby you have to pray,’” Melinda says with a smile. “I promise you I did. Night and day, and I started singing. I could hear harmony. It honestly was like night and day for me. I can’t take any credit for it. I just have to blame it on Jesus. He did this for me, and I am so grateful.” This all happened in the seventh grade in Oklahoma. In her high school years Melinda was auditioning for All-State choirs. She loved choirs and music theory. After graduation, Melinda headed for the University of Tulsa to major in classical music. After two years, Melinda transferred to Belmont University to learn more about the business side of music. From her first day, she knew Belmont was a special place. “I get there, and all these people are so amazing,” Melinda recalls. “I’m thinking, you’ve got to be kidding me!” She jumped into her classes and could hardly get enough of the music and business courses. “One particular class, Pop-Rock Styles, was probably the most influential class because it taught me how to sing all different styles,” she says. “And, obviously this year (on American Idol), that’s what I’ve spent the year doing. Singing all different styles and finding that voice that makes it work for you … that makes it work for the style. So, I credit that class for a lot.” Extracurricular activities also were a big part of Melinda’s education at Belmont. She wore the costume of the school mascot Bruiser the Bruin. “It was a blast! I loved the basketball games. I could see Vince Gill thru the screen on the costume head and I could be silly without anyone knowing it was me.” All the while, Melinda was drawn to musical theater and the escape it gave her to be anyone but herself. Last year, a friend she met doing plays at the Boiler Room told her he was going to audition for American Idol and wanted her to go with him. Melinda says she didn’t want to audition. She loved what she had been doing as a background singer. So there was no desire to audition. The friend sold her on the idea of going with him to the auditions because she could see all the crazy costumes and people. “That was all it took,” Melinda says. “Oh, I was there!” Two other friends took that trip to Memphis with them. The Idol rule is if you go in, you have to audition. “So, we all signed up for the audition and said okay, let’s do this. “I ended up being the only one to make it through,” Melinda says with big eyes, “And, I was like wait a minute, I wasn’t supposed to make it through. You see all these people being sent home and you assume you’re about to join them.” On her return to Nashville, Melinda immediately called her mom and told her she had made it through the auditions. She told her mom the Idol staff wanted her to come back, but she didn’t want to go. “Mom said, ‘Did you sign the paper that said you were going?’” Melinda remembers. “I said ‘yes,’ and she said ‘We are women of our word. You are going back!’ I’m so glad she did hold my feet to the fire. I feel like God tricked me into auditioning for Idol … and that’s okay.” The American Idol process, week in and week out, was tough. Melinda admits that taking criticism is not easy for her. But, again advice from her mom got her through. “She taught me this thing called ‘chew the hay, spit out the sticks,’” Melinda says. “In other words, whenever somebody says something to you, you take what’s good for you and spit out the rest.” So, she listened to the criticism and re-evaluated herself. She would ask herself if there was something she could change. If not, she would let it roll off her back. “And then I had my baby girl Jordan, (Idol winner Jordan Sparks), with me. She and I prayed a lot together.” Melinda had her close friends, her “Gayles” as she calls them (nicknamed after Oprah Winfrey’s best friend Gayle King). So, she says it was a good support system. Melinda says she was constantly chided for having a shocked look on her face after performances. But she says sometimes she WAS genuinely shocked. Getting ready to perform a song was a little scary. “I wondered, ‘Is this really going to work,’ then I would sing, have a blast doing it and when I was done it was like – wait a minute I really enjoyed that! People were applauding and Simon was saying nice things. My mouth was wide open.” Of the infamous Simon Cowell, the hard-to-please Idol judge, Melinda says, “I love him. He was my little teddy bear. My favorite. When there was criticism, it was something to make me stronger.” Melinda admits that moving from a background singer to being out front was not the easiest of moves for her. That was the worst part of Idol. There she was, in front of all those people bearing her soul. For her, she says, it was like standing in front of all those people naked. “I really didn’t know what ME sounded like,” Melinda says. “I hadn’t honed in on that yet. I was getting up on that stage and being something other than a background singer. I was learning about my voice, myself. I was learning who I was with the music and coming out on the other side a stronger person.” Idol helped Melinda Doolittle grow in other ways. Through Idol Gives Back, Melinda got to go to Africa for the first time. She says it was a life changing moment. “It opened my eyes to the fact that it just wasn’t about getting up in front of people and singing. It was about taking that platform and making a difference.” After Idol was over, Melinda got to travel to Africa again with First Lady Laura Bush. “We were not just going,” she says, “We were going there to save lives and hand out bed nets that were helping out with a charitable group called “Malaria No More” (www.MalariaNOMORE.org). It is now something Melinda has really gotten behind. “I spent my first day there with Mrs. Bush and Zambia’s First Lady Mrs. Mwanawasa.” Melinda says, “It was amazing and scary to see how devastated that country is with malaria, but to see the joy that comes out of people’s faces. I’ve never seen that much joy in my life. Especially in the midst of all that’s going on there. So, it was a great experience.” Her fan club, called “Melinda’s Backups,” have joined the singer in her efforts to aid Africa. On Melinda’s birthday and at Christmas, they donate bed nets, which is the primary goal of Malaria No More.   As a result of her Africa experience, Melinda was invited to perform at the White House at a dinner honoring Mrs. Bush by America’s Youth Alliance. At the dinner she was seated next to President Bush. She’s still nervous talking about that night. Catching her breath she says, “I was too nervous to eat. I’m thinking, 'I’m sitting next to the President!' But he was awesome. One of the most amazing and interesting people I’ve ever met. I sat there and wanted to cry because I’m thinking is this really my life now? Are these the opportunities I get? Is this God’s new plan for me? I can just name life changing moment after life changing moment this year.” Melinda just completed a Christmas tour with Michael W. Smith and The Katinas. She says she had a great time traveling with all the guys. One number even had Smitty and the Katinas being her backup. “Who would have thought in a year’s time they would be my ‘Pips,’” Melinda says with a smile. Melinda says she loves being rooted in middle Tennessee and like the small town atmosphere and sweet tea (“It’s the best thing in the world”). This year, Melinda will be working on recording an album. She says it will probably be a mainstream project. “I love to sing and I dream that I can continue to do it,” she says. “I hope the words that I sing will hit people in a great place – show them hope, show them joy. I pray I get to do that for as long as I can imagine. And, through the process, save some lives through Malaria No More.”