The Sixth Season of American Idol began as usual - with the audition process. This annual ritual brought out the strange and the wonderful - all with hopes of becoming the next Kelly Clarkson, Carrie Underwood or even the next Chris Daughtry. Among the contestants securely on the wonderful side was a successful Back Ground Vocalist (BGV) from the Nashville, Tennessee area - Melinda Doolittle. Melinda sang background vocals for many well-known artists and she toured with them as well. Melinda was also a familiar voice in commercials and other special musical programs and showcases in the Nashville area. Although Melinda’s vocal abilities were evident to all who heard her sing, she still needed the confidence to pursue a career as a lead singer. The opportunity came when the Idol auditions set up shop in the town of Memphis, Tennessee. Along to support her BGV friends, Melinda soon found herself among the hopefuls; and she made it passed the first two rounds to stand before the famed Idol judges: Randy Jackson, Paula Abdul and Simon Cowell. Not only were the judges impressed by her incredible rendition of Stevie Wonder’s song For Once in My Life;
but they were delighted with her story of coming out of the background to sing the lead. “One million percent yes!” declared Simon; and off to Hollywood Week she would go.
Shortly before Melinda’s audition aired, our own Tyler Graves read about her in the MySpace Blog of Season 5 contestant Mandisa. Tyler became friends with Mandisa during her Idol journey and created a fan website for her. Tyler contacted Melinda though her MySpace page and a friendship was born.
Fastforward to the Top (24, that is)
We did not see much of our humble BGV during Hollywood Week; but Melinda more than made herself known by performing stellar selections in the Top 24 (Since You’ve Been Gone),
Top 20 (My Funny Valentine)
and Top 16 (I’m a Woman, W-O-M-A-N).
In the meantime, fans were gathering daily on the American Idol and IdolForum Boards (among others) to express their opinions. The American Idol Forums were a hotbed of fan love-and-war for all of the contestants from season to season; and season 6 was no exception. Some of Melinda’s first posters were: DothanTaylorFan known here as DothanFan, Season5Blues, Blue Nile and judgingamy. DothanFan: “We had a thread that we worked hard to keep on the first page early on. I was always scrounging for info on Melinda so we had something to talk about. We didn't have many folks coming to the Season 6 thread. We gradually got more and more people coming once we got our folder for Melinda. We had Friday's Child and Kendra pretty quickly after the folder started up.”
A Rose by any other Name...
The name Melinda’s Backups came about from discussions at the American Idol Forums and IdolForums in late January 2007. Many other names were discussed, but the name Backups won the day. Melinda’s Backups was the name that Melinda herself liked; and it was the most appropriate since she would later call her fans her “supporters.” Leon_______ started the list of numbered Backups, then Kendra took it over and then Nani.
Friday’s Child picked up on Simon’s nicknaming of Melinda as a “little tiger “ (during her Top 16 performance) and sent her a little stuffed tiger
on behalf of all of the Backups; and the flood of gifts began. “Barb/NotUrGirl and Greg were the ones who organized the first flowers delivered to Melinda. Dothanfan added, " Later, the Backups sent huge bouquets to the Finale for Melinda that were created by a world-class florist"
(http://floristblogs.com/blogs/avant_gardens/archive/2007/05/23/flowers-for-melinda-doolittle.aspx) to show even more love for our world-class Idol.
In Times Like These, Oh Be Not Idol
The American Idol Forums became so tumultuous with strong opinions inciting fan wars that an alternative was needed. Since he had previously created a fan site for Mandisa, Tyler offered to do the same for Melinda; and in no time MelindaFan.net was ready to take center stage!
On February 10, 2007 MelindaFan.net was launched; offering Melinda-fans from the American Idol Forums and other sites a safe place to cheer Melinda on through her journey from Top 24 and beyond. Members posted their love for Melinda day and night including photos, reviews of the shows (and later the summer tour), spiritual encouragement for the members, poems, multi-media (photos, videos, avatars) and games. Along with Melinda’s own MySpace, MelindaFan.net (MelFan) quickly became THE place for all-things Melinda.
Before the summer tour began, the leaders of MelFan suggested to the members that beautiful flowers should greet Melinda as she arrived at every venue to perform. City by city, Backups donated the funds and arranged to have the flowers delivered where possible. Soon photos would pop up on Melinda’s MySpace showing the many, many flowery expressions of her fans’ love.
Portland, OR
Salt Lake City, UT
Toronto, ON
Rochester, NY
Fan generosity also spread to the cause of providing bed nets in malaria-infested African countries, such as Zambia, through the efforts of Malaria No More. Melinda became involved with MNM through Idol Gives Back, held on April 24 and 25 during her season. Along with the flowers for Melinda, Tyler suggested that the Backups might also want to make contributions to Malaria No More; and many agreed to do so.
Blessed to be a Blessing
As Backups, MFan members responded to MNM’s call to donate $10 for each bednet by donating throughout the summer, but especially en masse on October 6 - Melinda’s birthday! The Backups also surprised Melinda with a custom-made charm bracelet. Melinda would later thank the Backups in a post: “The Bible with EPH 3:20, the high heel with Chanel, the music staff with Love your Backups, the flowers, the best friends with I love my Gayles, the Africa with MNM, the heart locket for me and my mommy and the Tiger are the best representations of this year’s journey.”
All Good Things...
As Melinda parted ways with her American Idol family and began her journey as a lead singer, the members of MelindaFan.net grappled with how to best continue our role as supporters. Some saw our role as promotional regarding Melinda’s recordings and performances. Others saw a need to continue Melinda’s work with Malaria No More, as well as help other aspiring vocalists by establishing a scholarship fund at her alma mater, Belmont University. Those who wanted to work more for charitable causes formed MelindasBackups.com, while MelindaFan.net continued as the home of all-things Melinda, including the much-loved Moments With Melinda. Throughout the fall of 2007, MelindaFan.net continued to serve as a gathering place for Melinda’s supporters, who would report back from her various appearances and shows; but it became clear that much more would be needed as Melinda’s debut CD drew closer to reality.
A Moment Like This...
On Saturday, October 13, 2007 MelindaFan.net created the first Moments With Melinda, on the blogtalkradio web site http://www.blogtalkradio.com/momentswithmelinda). The name was chosen from a member contest and the winning title was submitted by Holly/luvpway. MFan members and other Melinda-fans were treated to one-on-one conversations with their Idol as the show’s host, Tyler, moderated. The hour passed too quickly and a second installment was suggested by Melinda to take place the following Tuesday evening (October 16). Once again, her fans embraced the chance to spend moments with Melinda, telling her how much she inspired them, how much they loved her performances on the show and in the Idol Live! tour, as well as how eagerly they awaited her debut CD.
Christmas Time Is Here...
To close out the year on another high note, Melinda joined the Michael W. Smith Christmas Tour, along with the Katinas, and continued to win new Melinda-fans who had not seen American Idol, but who were delighted by her singing. The Backups attended as many performances as they could. Holly/luvpway offered to bring Christmas presents (an ipod pre-loaded with messages from the Backups, an iTunes gift card, a trophy and a scrapbook containing stories of lives touched and changed by Backups inspired by Melinda) to a performance on December 22, 2007.
My Funny Valentine...
With a management team in place since December (Blanton, Harrell, Cook and Corzine), Melinda began 2008 with her Backups ready to support her next move. February 10, 2008 signaled the anniversary of MelindaFan.net; and to celebrate, Tyler asked Melinda if she would delight her fans with another blogtalkradio program. The timing could not have been better! Melinda announced on MWM #3 that she planned a special Valentine for her fans: her own version of My Funny Valentine would be released on February 12, 2008 through both Amazon.com and iTunes. Adding to the Backups’ joy, Melinda announced that she signed with an independent record label (Hi Fi Recordings, affiliated with music publishing giant MPCA) that would help bring her musical visions to life, including the debut CD (due in fall 2008), a Christmas CD and an original music CD in 2009 (featuring her favorite singer, Johnny Lang). Coupled with the fact that many Backups would be able to get within hugging distance again during one of the many stops Melinda would make for the Dryer’s/Edy’s Ice Cream tour, this was indeed music to our ears!
It’s a New Day, it’s a New Dawn, It’s a New Life...
All of this good news lit a fire under the members of MelindaFan.net. Tyler and his staff realized that the time had come to shift gears from fan site to Street Team. Unlike a fan site, Street Teams promote the artists beyond the site members to the CD-buying and concert-going target audiences and keep the buzz going between appearances and recordings. So on March 7, 2008 The Melinda Doolittle Street Team was launched!
Most of the 251 members made the switch over to the new site, but new Melinda-fans would join in the coming weeks due to constant internet advertising by some of the members and staff. At last count, the Street Team had 376 members.
Melinda’s supporters have been and will be there for her:
from baby steps to giant leaps,
humble beginnings to standing ovations,
Presidential command performances to charitable appearances,
numerous TV/radio/internet interviews to future music award acceptance speeches!
Thank you for being a part of Melinda’s supporters - Backups and Teamers all!
