Madison McClelland

Elizabethton High School student Madison McClelland is looking forward to auditioning for the 2021 American Idol show as well as traveling to Australia to try out for the Australian Women’s Choir.

Born to be on stage...

McClelland’s vocal talents shining brightly

Story by Ivan Sanders • Photos by Ivan Sanders & Contributed

In life, opportunities either are stumbled upon or come by hard work.

For Elizabethton High School student Madison McClelland, the latter study as she has participated in the Royal Conservatory Music study beginning at Level 2 Lin Marsh’s Butterfly and Clark Gesner’s Happiness and now is the Level 5-8 studies concentrating has opened a door that many singers only dream about.

Singing has come naturally for the outgoing McClelland, whose first big shot came at the age of 6 when she was asked to sing in her church “Happy Birthday Jesus” program. From that point her love of performing has grown.

McClelland said singing brings her peace, and she loves to use the talent that God gave her to uplift Him.

She began training with Sabrina Hess. Then, during a performance of “Broadway Comes to Greeneville,” she heard about Ivy Blair, who continues as her vocal coach today.

During her time with Blair, McClelland has expanded her talent to be able to sing not only in English but also in Latin, French, Italian, and German.

“I had been taking Latin for about seven years before I came to T.A. Dugger in my eighth-grade year,” reflected McClelland on her extensive language training. “Some languages are harder than others. I thought it was difficult at first for me to transition to singing in a different language because you have to make sure your tempos are right then you have to make sure are saying the right words in those different languages.

“After I had done a couple of songs and had memorized them, the other languages came faster for me to learn because I had sung in a different language. German was the hardest.”

McClelland has put in time in intensive on Vocalise in Major and Minor Keys. She described RCM as scoring based much like auditions. The challenge has been doing those on Zoom due to the recent COVID-19 pandemic as it creates an issue of both hearing her music as well as her singing. The scoring is based on how well she does and also takes time to point out what she needs to work on. McClelland says it is important that she continues to do these types of auditions so that she can be coached on areas to improve. The connection with her vocal coach also led to McClelland’s biggest opportunity yet – a chance to audition for the American Idol television show. During a conversation about upcoming auditions, Blair said she had received a call from the television show’s producers wanting to know if the vocal teacher had any mature students who knew how to audition and have participated in auditions. “I was like,’ please tell me you put my name down’ and she said that she did,” McClelland said with a wide grin. “I started jumping for joy because that was so big for me. I have some songs that I am working on for that. I am really excited.” She said that American Idol will contact her a week before the audition which once again will be conducted via Zoom and a couple of weeks later she should receive another email if she has made it to the next round.

Madison McClelland enjoys partici-pating in musicals as well as singing.

Madison McClelland says that sing-ing is what brings her peace and joy.

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Madison McClelland hopes to one day become an educator and teach music or possibly go into the law profession.

The show will whittle the numbers from approximately 50 contests down to 10 who will be invited to fly to California to compete.

Although the Idol show is a big event, it’s not the first time that McClelland has been on a big stage. She appeared at the famous Carnegie Hall in 2020 as part of the Honors Performance Choir and is scheduled to travel to Australia to audition for Australia’s All Women’s Choir as part of another Carnegie production.

McClelland said the Carnegie Hall performance was one of the greatest experiences she has had. It took a lot of hard work as all of the music had to be memorized before arriving in New York.

She also was able to go on tours with the group while in New York and made lasting relationships with those she met - including the three random girls that she roomed with during her stay.

It was also during this trip that she endured her most challenging time as a performer because she had lost her voice before the trip.

“I was trying to sing and make sure I was doing the right things to not lose my voice even more,” McClelland said. “I wasn’t getting much sleep because of the times we had to get up and go to practices. I felt like that was most challenging. I had to stay hydrated and make sure that I was eating because I was going to all these practices.

“I had to manage my time and I hadn’t had to do that before with other performances that I had done.”

McClelland plans to study music, participating in a traveling choir while completing her schoolwork online in college. Although it’s too early to make final plans right now for that day, she said she will continue to pursue her training and auditions and listen to advice from her parents Chad and Tena McClelland along the way. She is also the granddaughter of Charlie and Kathy Gouge and Haymond and Judy Thompson.

And who knows, soon McClelland may hear those famous words spoken, “Madison McClelland, you are the new American Idol”.

Madison McClelland said she has always belonged on stage. She was part of the Barter Youth Academy in 2016’s production of The Sound of Music where she played Liesel.

“I was like, please tell me you put my name down and she said that she did. I started jumping for joy because that was so big for me. I have some songs that I am working on for that. I am really excited.”

Madison McClelland enjoys singing in church to uplift the name of the Lord.

—Madison McClelland