Melinda Doolittle's friends know she has the talent to win

'Idol' thoughts
By MATT GLEASON World Scene Writer
2/11/2007

Melinda Doolittle's friends know she has the talent to win
"Do you hate every single person you're singing backing vocals for?" Simon Cowell asked former Tulsan, Melinda Doolittle, during her "American Idol" audition.

Doolittle's audition in Memphis, Tenn., ultimately earned the professional backup singer a spot in Idol's first round of competition, which airs at 7 p.m. Tuesday night on Fox.

Then, like millions of Idol fans across the country, Doolittle's best friends from Union High School's class of '95 -- two locals, Amber Kaseman and Tiffany Wills -- waited to hear what Doolittle might say next.

Kaseman, 29, watched her friend's life-changing audition, which aired Jan. 23., with her husband, Daniel, by her side.

In the early '90s, it was Doolittle who brought the couple together at a long ago Michael W. Smith concert. That concert ultimately led to a almost 10-year marriage and a 6-year-old daughter, Ginger, who loves to sing and dance.

Wills, too, watched the audition with her husband. Doolittle sang at their 2001 wedding.

And, like Kaseman, the 30-year-old Wills said she cried through the entire audition.

How could they not cry? After all, they were witnessing Doolittle take her first step on a road that could lead her fame and stardom as the next American Idol.

As proof, Kaseman and Wills are on a waiting list to get tickets to the "American Idol" finale.

Although Kaseman and Wills don't see much of Doolittle (she lives far away in a town near Nashville), the friends keep in touch via frequent e-mails and telephone calls.

Distance keeps them apart nowadays, but the trio were "inseparable" in high school, Kaseman said.

Back then, people could find them together at Rhema Bible Church; teaming together for Alpha Theta events -- Doolittle was president of Union's Christian organization; Kaseman was her vice president -- or over in Union's choir hall, where Doolittle and Wills sang together with their schoolmates, but not with Kaseman.

Despite Doolittle's best efforts, Kaseman said, "She'd try and help me to learn how to sing, but it didn't ever work."

Throughout high school, Kaseman said her friend "was on fire."

Doolittle was a member of several student organizations, was the go-to-singer for a myriad of events, and was voted Most Talented and Most Spirited by her peers.

Heck, she even served as the school's mascot.

Most days after school, Kaseman gave Doolittle a ride in her Mustang convertible to the apartment Doolittle shared with her mother, who has since moved to South Carolina.

Wills occasionally gave Doolittle a ride as well, but in less glamorous style. See, Wills drove what she called "a piece of junk, brown car."

There's a funny story about that car, which involves Doolittle and a threatening note found beneath that piece of junk's windshield wiper.

"Stay away from him. He's mine," someone had written in the note, which was marked with a skull and crossbones.

Wills, who was interested in a boy at the time, spent the car ride "freaking out," and thinking, "Oh my gosh, who would have written this? I don't know who would do this to me?"

All the while, Doolittle sat in the passenger seat -- laughing.

"I'm like, 'This is not funny,' "Wills recalled. "Ended up, she had written it to play a prank on me. That's just her. She's always witty and, you know, always doing crazy stuff like that. She always laughs and has a good time."

Kaseman added that Doolittle "has the best sense of humor ever."

Two days after the "Idol" episode aired, Kaseman flipped through her senior scrapbook and smiled as she pointed out snapshots taken with Doolittle, like the one snapped of them at Kaseman's surprise 17th birthday party, and another taken of all the three girls on their senior trip to South Padre Island.

Then there was the note Doolittle penned to Kaseman in an indecipherable code long since forgotten.

"We used to write in codes all the time, and I can't figure it out now," Kaseman said. ". . . It's just gobbledegook.

OK, so back to Cowell's revealing question: "Do you hate every single person you're singing backing vocals for?"

To that probing question, Doolittle said, "I don't."

"No, truthfully," Cowell prodded, "Do you think, 'Fall off the stage, break your leg and I'll take your place?' "

That's when Doolittle, a singer who has devoted herself to praising God in her music, provided yet another example of her compassion for others.

"Oh goodness no," Doolittle said.

In high school, Kaseman said Doolittle was always "the first on the scene" to help anyone in need.

"She would pray for anybody right then and there, wherever she was," Kaseman said. "In the middle of the hallway at school, she would stop and pray for somebody if they asked her for prayer.

"She's one of those non-wavering Christian girls that I would like to be like: really strong. I know she's that way today, that she would just stop anything that she was doing if somebody was hurting and they needed her help, or a hug, or anything."

She also gave really great back rubs.

"It just seemed to calm people," Wills said of the soothing massages.

Once Cowell's questions were answered, Doolittle proved she deserved a place in the competition when she closed her eyes, raised her hands -- palms out -- to her chest and began an a cappella version of Stevie Wonder's "For Once in My Life," a song that includes the lines:

"I can go where life leads me/And somehow I know I'll be strong."

When she finished, Paula Abdul gushed, "You're good," and then upped the praise saying, "You're really good."

Randy Jackson, the most boisterous of the judges, looked at a clearly overwhelmed Doolittle and said, "You look scared to death, man."

Jackson enjoyed her performance, but questioned whether or not the shy backup singer could find it in herself to stand center stage.

After all, he wondered aloud, weren't lead singers supposed to have a Cowell-esque arrogance?

Perhaps for some, but Doolittle is much too humble for arrogance.

Wills said, "They're right, Randy saying have more confidence. That's just her being humble. She's just humble. You tell her, 'Melinda you're amazing.' She's like, 'What?' "

To which Wills would tell her, "You're amazing. Believe it."

Although Doolittle is sometimes quiet in groups of people, Kaseman said, once she has a microphone in hand, she's a force of nature.

"Did you see her on 'American Idol'?" Kaseman asked. "She was that way in high school. She was real quiet, real humble, but if you put a microphone in her hand, she could blow everybody away. It was amazing."

Once Abdul and Jackson finished their appraisals, it was (dramatic pause) Cowell's turn.

Doolittle intently listened as Cowell told her, "You walk in with no confidence, no attitude and yet you are a brilliant singer -- a brilliant singer."

Sure, Cowell had concerns about Doolittle's seeming lack of confidence, but he noted that Doolittle was in the "top 2 percent of good singers this year."

Looking back on Cowell's kind words, Kaseman said, "I'd never heard him say anything nice but to a few people. I was crying. I was like, 'I love Simon. I've changed my opinion about him.' But I agree, she was amazing and brilliant, and I think she will get over the shy part."

Then, one-by-one, the judges gave their ringing endorsements for Doolittle to continue on to Hollywood, where Idol wannabes become Idol celebrities.

"Welcome to Hollywood," Jackson whooped as he clapped his hands.

Doolittle thanked the judges, picked up her white contestant sign from the floor -- Kaseman would like to include that sign in a scrapbook she's putting together for Doolittle -- and then made her way towards the door.

Before she was out the door, though, Jackson called to her, "Believe in yourself, man. Come on, you know that you've got it."

And on that momentous evening, two women in Oklahoma with tears rolling down their faces, agreed.

"American Idol"
When: 7 p.m. Tuesday and 8 p.m. Wednesday

Where: Fox, channel 23 and cable channel 5