On November 16, 2019, Alief ISD’s Alief Idol singing competition comes to its final round staging at Houston’s Leroy Crump Stadium’s parking lot as part of the gigantic annual Alief Community Proud Day festival. The top three finalists from each arranged category which consist of Elementary/Intermediate, Middle/High School and staff were all judged of their performances by four qualified record singers. One of the judges, soulful jazz and R&B song-writer and singer Madeline Edwards shares an intake of her thoughts about the singers, the competition, and the connection of the event to her own music. 

“Alief Proud Day and the Alief Idol competition has been amazing and it was my pleasure to be here and to be able to judge the Alief Idol finalists that came from a variety of backgrounds and each with a unique voice to express,” said Edwards. “The Elementary and Intermediate students especially blew me away with their singing at a very young age and each person that sang today all do have a future in music if they keep up their singing consistently”.

Part of being a judge in competitions is the ability to pinpoint strengths and weaknesses within the competitor and in his or her work. As being a judge for Alief Idol, Edwards approaches her voting criteria with focal attention to balance within a performance.

“When singing, I think it’s important to have balance in the tone and pitch of your voice during the changing levels of sound in a song,” said Edwards. “It can be easy to have a good pitch, but the tone in your voice can be bad. If you could keep those two in check, then the song will sound in harmony without any part of it going out of order”.   

As a mixed singer of the jazz and soul culture genre of music, Edwards shares that the singing competition had reminded her of her own music and her purpose for songwriting and creating music. Edward’s music primarily focuses on vulnerability and healing. Both of these aspects play a role within her music and in her own past where she had an antagonist in earlier stages of her story. The antagonist was a former music colleague and a businessman in power-who allegedly assaulted her. 

“It was probably one of the most horrifying things I have ever gone through,” says Edwards. “It broke me”.

Counseling sessions, tours, band and family encouragement for a full year became her healing process as this was also her drive for her music. 

“Music to me is healing and to tell about hard experiences that people can relate to in the feeling that it was hard,” said Edwards. “That’s why when I saw the teachers and the children singing in the competition, it reminded me that they must have gone through hardship or will someday. It also reminded me of my purpose in wanting to help others in hardship. I was the oldest in my family and I always feel like I have to be the one to be strong, but not everybody is strong or the oldest in their family so that’s where I go to in my music”. 

Life will always be the one to hit you the hardest, but it is how you view your failure and what you do after you’ve fallen that defines whether you lose or win. For Edwards, she now has come to realize her pain as there for a purpose and for growth. 

“It’s very important to experience pain for growth,” said Edwards. “It can be very hard but it isn’t going to last forever. Don’t avoid pain”.