By: Taylor Rigney, Staff Reporter
Oak Grove High School graduate Lindsey Lee always knew she wanted to be a singer. “One time when I was ten years old, I was riding in the car with my mom, dad, and grandmother. LeAnn Rimes was on the radio. I was singing along, and at one point, I belted it out just like she did. My parents and grandmother all turned and stared at me for like a whole minute…. My dad goes, ‘Lindsey… where did you learn to do that?’ At that moment, I knew I had something special,” Lee recalls.
Since then, Lee has continued to pursue her musical career, and she has not only turned into a Youtube sensation (her cover of “Airplanes” with views well into the hundreds of thousands), but her original song “Fall Out” is also now played regularly on SL100.
When American Idol winner Kris Allen played at the Hunt Club in Hattiesburg in June, SL100 held a contest for viewers to send videos of themselves singing the chorus of Allen’s song “Live Like We’re Dying.” Lindsey and her younger sister, Julianna, won the contest and front row tickets and backstage passes to Kris Allen’s show. “Lindsey’s mom gave me her demo at the concert, and I absolutely loved it! I played ‘Fall Out’ on the radio the next day, and the response was incredible. We’ve continued to play the song ever since,” SL100 D.J. and avid Lindsey Lee fan, Don King said of the singer.
Just weeks after Lee’s song debuted on the radio station, “Fall Out” made it as number three on the “Freak Show’s Five Most Wanted,” a regular radio program that chronicles Mississippi’s most requested songs.
“The first time I heard myself on the radio, I cried! It was so surreal. I was alone in my car, and heard myself on the radio. It was weird with no one there to freak out with me. It’s like, it was just me… in my car… listening to myself on the radio… so I just cried,” Lee said. “It’s still really surreal every time I hear it. It still hasn’t really hit me yet,” she said.
This past March Lindsey set off for Nashville, Tennessee, where she has been working as a live-in nanny.
Currently, Lee has been touring across the United States and Canada since September 13 as a back-up singer for Stephen Jerzak, one of the opening bands on the Mike “Cooler than Me” Posner tour. “It’s amazing being on tour with Mike Posner. I don’t get to hang out with him much because he’s ‘cooler than me,’” Lindsey joked. “But really, he is very professional, and he’s always off warming up somewhere or doing sound checks or in his tour bus. It’s rare that he’s around everyone,” she said.
Lee says her dreams for the near future include her getting a record deal and becoming a “respected, established songwriter.” She offers this advice for other young people thinking about pursuing their dreams: “When you feel like giving up, don’t. Push through every tough situation. Have confidence! Love yourself and believe in yourself. You can’t rely on the approval of others. People will bring you down. It’s just the way it is. You have to love yourself so you can trust yourself with decisions. That’s the biggest thing: developing inner-strength and confidence that comes from within, not from other people.”
Although she draws a lot of her strength from herself, Lee has many other people whom to thank for her success. “So many people have helped me along the way. I can’t give all the credit to one person. First of all, God gave me this gift; that is without a doubt. I owe every bit of my life, my talent, my everything to Him. All of the glory goes to Him. But He placed people in my life such as family and friends who have helped push me when I wanted to quit or have believed in me when no one else did,” Lee said.
Her single “Fall Out” can be purchased on iTunes, and, with talent like hers, it shouldn’t be long before this Oak Grove alum is touring across the country in her own show.
