Melissa O'Neil

Melissa O'Neil
Melissa O'Neil in 2006
Background information
Birth name	Melissa Crystal O'Neil
Born	(1988-07-12) July 12, 1988 (age 28)
Origin	Calgary, Alberta, Canada
Genres	Pop
Occupation(s)	Singer, Actress
Instruments	Singing
Years active	2005–present
Labels	Sony Music Canada (2005–2007)
Associated acts	Ryan Malcolm, Kalan Porter, Eva Avila, Brian Melo

Melissa Crystal O'Neil (born July 12, 1988) is a Canadian singer and musical theatre actress who was the winner of the third season of Canadian Idol in 2005. She was the first Canadian female winner. She is also an actress, known for her role as Two/Portia Lin on Dark Matter.

O'Neil was born and raised in Calgary, Alberta, and attended Terry Fox Junior High School before studying at Lester B. Pearson High School. Prior to her Canadian Idol experience, she worked at a day care centre and was involved in local musical theatre productions. Her maternal grandfather gave her a Chinese name (Chinese: 奧詩敏).

In early 2005, O'Neil auditioned for the third season of Canadian Idol. 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; but, on the final day of competition, she forgot the words to her chosen song and froze. Nevertheless, the judges were still so impressed by her singing abilities that she continued to the top 32. After scoring the highest number of votes in her semi-final group, again with "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.