Melissa O'Neil

Melissa Crystal O'Neil (born July 12, 1988) is a Canadian singer who was the winner of the third season of Canadian Idol in 2005.^[1] She was the first female winner and is the second youngest idol winner in the world, with the youngest being 2004 Australian Idol winner Casey Donovan . She is of Chinese, Irish and French heritage.

Biography

Early life

O'Neil was born and raised in Calgary, Alberta by her parents Tim O'Neil and Alison Yeung. She attended Terry Fox Junior High School in and then studied at Lester B. Pearson High School, both of which are situated in her home town of Calgary. Prior to her Canadian Idol experience, she had worked at a daycare centre, and had also been involved in local musical theatre productions. Her mother stated that her daughter only became interested in singing around three years before her audition for Canadian Idol. Melissa has one sibling, a younger brother named Colin Patrick O'Neil, whom she is very close to.

Her maternal grandfather gave her a Chinese name (Chinese: 奧詩敏; Cantonese Yale: Ou Sīmáhn).^[2]

Canadian Idol 2005

In early 2005, O'Neil auditioned for the third season of Canadian Idol, however her audition was not shown on television. The judges were impressed by her vocals and she made it through to the top 100 round. On the first day, she sang the song "Concrete Angel" by Martina McBride a cappella and again impressed the judges, however on the final day of competition, she forgot the words to her chosen song and froze on-stage. Nevertheless, the judges were still so impressed by her singing abilities that they all agreed that she should move on to the top 32, semi-final stages of the competition. After scoring the highest number of votes in her semi-final group with another stunning performance of "Concrete Angel", O'Neil was granted a place in the final 10 of the contest.

Although she was highly praised by the judges, O'Neil suffered huge setbacks in the top 10 and top 9 weeks of the finals, as she was in both the bottom three and bottom two respectively. Shocked by this, the judges urged viewers to vote for contestants like Melissa, who clearly had the best vocal abilities. From then on, O'Neil never fell back into the bottom three after delivering consistently praised performances, and judge Zack Werner declared that she was "a threat to win the whole thing". On September 7, 2005, O'Neil made it into the final two of the competition, alongside Rex Goudie, and after yet more stunning performances, judge Zack Werner famously stated that the headlines of the next day's newspapers would be "The Prince [Kalan Porter] is dead, long live the Queen." During the grand finale results show on September 14, 2005, O'Neil was crowned the third Canadian Idol and the first female winner, defeating Goudie.

Melissa is one of only two Idol winners world wide to land in the Bottom 3 in the first week of their season's finals. The other is Ben Lummis, the first New Zealand Idol winner.

Canadian Idol Performances

Post-Idol Career

2005-2006: Melissa O'Neil

Immediately after her win on Canadian Idol, O'Neil received a congratulatory phone call from the Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin. She then signed a recording contract with Sony BMG Canada and released her first single "Alive", which hit stores on October 4, 2005 and debuted at number one on the Canadian singles chart, a position it held for four weeks. The single went on to be certified four-times platinum by the CRIA

Her self-titled debut album Melissa O'Neil, was released on November 22, 2005 and debuted at number sixteen on the Canadian albums chart. The second single from her album, "Let It Go" was released in late 2005 and peaked at number seven on the singles chart. On February 7, 2006, O'Neil embarked on her first solo tour in North Bay, Ontario, named the 'Let It Go Tour' after her second single. Her support act was her Canadian Idol runner-up, Rex Goudie. The third single release from O'Neil's album was "Speechless", which peaked number thirty-one, significantly lower than her two previous songs but still respectable nonetheless. In March 2006, her debut album was certified gold by the CRIA for 50,000 units shipped, and her first single "Alive" was covered by Becki Ryan in the movie Flicka. On September 16, 2006 O'Neil returned to the Canadian Idol stage during grand finale of its fourth season. Here she was surprised with the certified gold presentation disc of her debut album.

2007-present: Second Studio Album

On April 1, 2007, O'Neil attended the annual Juno Awards, where she was nominated for Best New Artist. Ironically, one of the other nominees was her Canadian Idol successor, Eva Avila. However, Tomi Swick took home the award. Since then, O'Neil stated that she was working on her second studio album, which she aims to illustrate her full musical aspirations, and allow her to grow as an independent, imaginative artist. She starred in the musical of Dirty Dancing in Toronto, Ontario as a featured singer. She then played the role of Gabriella in High School Musical On Stage with Drayton Entertainment in St. Jacobs and Penetanguishene and was featured as a lead in the Stage West Calgary production of "British Invasion", alongside former lead singer of The Guess Who, Terry Hatty. O'Neil made her Stratford Shakespeare Festival debut during the 2011 season as Martha/Maid by the Fire in Jesus Christ Superstar and she made an appearance in Camelot.

Personal life

A few months after the competition ended, first runner-up Rex Goudie confessed that he and Melissa had a "thing" going on since practically the beginning of the competition. In an interview with Canadian Press, Goudie confirmed that they were dating. However, their relationship ended in mid 2007.

Discography

The following is a complete discography of every album and single released by Canadian pop music artist Melissa O'Neil.

Albums

Singles

Featured On

• Canadian Idol: High Notes (2005)

Track #6: Concrete Angel

• Rex Goudie: Under The Lights (2005)

Track #11: Whiskey Lullaby

See also

• Canadian rock
• Music of Canada

References

External links

• Melissa O'Neil
• Melissa O'Neil on Myspace