Smithville resident Josh Issac, a.k.a Josh Melton, has advanced to sing in front of the American Idol judges next year.
Issac, who has attempted to become an Idol contender once before, said he had not intended to try again, but his latest try has been a satisfying one.
“I did tryout for Idol before, and got to move on to the California round in front of Simon, Paula, and Randy,” Issac told the Review. “It was a great honor to be able to do that. I had actually decided back then I was going to move on from my Idol dreams, which makes this latest experience an even more exciting win.
“After I won at Disneyworld recently, there were probably 50 people waiting to get my autograph and pictures. We couldn't get five feet without someone stopping us. It made me feel humble that God gave me this experience, and another chance to reach for my dreams,” he said.
Issac is no stranger to singing competitions, having been singing in public for most of his life.
“ I have actually been in singing competitions since I was in sixth grade,” he said. “My very first one was at the Dekalb County Fair when I was 13. I was so nervous.
“They picked three people to come back and sing another song, and I was one of them. I didn't have a second song so I sang Amazing grace, but messed up the words. Somehow I won. Since then I've gotten better and learned to be more prepared.”
Issac has recently won Mule Town Idol, Columbia Star Search, Shelbyville’s got Talent, Chattanooga Fox channels American Idol, Chattanooga Idol, Tennessee Idol in Nashville, Warren Co Idol 2012 and Dekalb Idol 2012.
“One crazy fact is that while I was in Chattanooga, FOX had their own American Idol competition, which was a big deal,” he said.
“Thousands of people came to the finals, and I won, but second place was Lauren Alana, who went on that year to win second on the real  American Idol . They even made a commercial with me and her on it.”
Issac said his latest Idol experience has been a rewarding one.
“I went to Florida with a church youth group and tried out at Disneyworld. I had to sing in front of a casting producer,” he shared.
“I sang ‘I Heard It Through the Grapevine’ and made it through the first round. I then had 20 minutes to pick and learn two songs to sing with music in front of the main casting producer. They only chose 15 people out of 300.
“They chose me to do a video segment, and the youth group got to dance in the streets and be filmed for everyone to see. It was so great to see them get to experience a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
“In my first round, I sang in front of more than 1,000 people, they voted, and I won. At the end of the day, only five of us remained. There were over 3,000 in the studio, and we were also on the megatron outside. After all the votes came in I was the last one standing.
“It was so surreal because of how talented the others were. They were from all over the country, and one was from the UK. I will now be moving on next year to sing in front if the celebrity judges, and they will let me know in the spring where that will be.”