Maddie Hutt will never forget the day she performed in front of the Grant student body. It was May last school year and she had been nominated to sing “Take a Bow” by Rihanna at the Spirit of Grant assembly.
As she neared the stage, she grew nervous and anxious about her voice. Once But she began singing and the fear went away. Hutt finished to the roar of applause and proved to herself that she is most comfortable on stage.
“I’ve been singing since I was little,” Hutt says. “Singing is my passion. And when you have talents like that, you utilize them.”
In today’s world of reality television, stars are discovered every minute. They put their songs online, someone discovers them, and they become a sensation. But Hutt, now a sophomore, has chosen to be more unconventional. She wants to make it big, but she’s taking the old-fashioned route by recording songs to submit to local radio stations.
“My mom always asks me, ‘Why don’t you put your stuff online?’ It’s not the way to go for me,” Hutt explains. “I don’t want to wait for someone to find me.”
Hutt’s mother, Jennifer Hutt, knew from the beginning that her daughter would be a singer. “Maddie had a gift,” her mom says. “When she was nine months old, her first words were the lyrics to the songs I played around the house.”
At her grandmother’s 87th birthday party, Hutt picked up the microphone and sang “Happy Birthday” to a roomful of surprised guests. She was two years old.
Hutt’s family couldn’t wait to throw her into the world of music. They put her in a church choir and encouraged her to perform at talent shows. By sixth grade, she was singing to groups of her friends on the playground during recess.
“If there’s one defining moment for me, it was probably my third grade talent show,” Hutt recalls. “The sound of the audience was something I wanted to feel forever.”
Despite her happiness on the playground, Hutt faced a painful issue at home: her parents had suddenly divorced. When her parents split, her family left their home in Arizona. Maddie Hutt moved to Oregon with her mom. Her dad, Wesley Hutt, moved to California with her brothers.
“I was sad because our family was separated,” Hutt says. “And I was focused on being there for my mom. There was no way for me to comprehend it emotionally.”
Soon after, Hutt found comfort in Grant’s choir room, singing and writing songs in the company of her a cappella teacher, Beth Hembd.
“The first time I heard her voice in choralaires I could immediately tell that she was going to advance to a cappella,” Hembd says.
Hembd has watched Hutt’s voice develop and she’s confident that her abilities will translate well in the music industry.
“Her voice is definitely geared towards pop, which is a style of its own, but she can also sing choral music, which is how you want your voice to be trained,” Hemb says. By being trained in a classical voice, Hutt has the standard set of vocals that can be applied to virtually any genre of music.
Hutt is confident she can make it big time. Still, it’ll be a challenge. “The (music industry) will take somebody who has minimal ability and they’ll turn them into a star because he or she is marketable,” she says.
She won’t take part in the Internet “sensation of the week.” Instead, she’ll hit the street and try to make sure local radio stations hear her sing.
Connie Hines, the adviser for Grant’s Black Student Union, has a background in the entertainment business. Hines worked at FM radio station 95.5 and has a history setting up music gigs in the Portland area. She thinks Hutt might be making a mistake not going on Youtube.
“That’s how you’re going to get out there,” Hines says. “As far as radio stations go, they’re going to just put submissions aside unless she knows somebody who can make her an opener.”
Hutt is also getting steady pressure to audition on television. “I keep telling her to audition for American Idol,” Jennifer Hutt says, laughing.
Admitting that she’s skittish about getting rejected, Maddie Hutt has some reservations. But she recognizes the need for improvement.
“In this industry, you have to be able to overcome criticism,” Hutt says. “Since I want that career, I really need to get used to it more. I want to make a career out of (singing) because that’s what I do. It’s who I am. I’m not going to let people tell me ‘no you can’t.’ I know it’s going to be a lot of hard work but I’m not going take no for an answer.”
