SOULFUL SISTERS: Alaina, left, and Brittney Whitaker entertain at this year’s Mayfest. The Tulsa sisters have been singing together since they were little and often compete in local and regional competitions together. Their next performance will be at the Green Corn Festival in Bixby June 28-30.
Courtesy Norma Reneau
Visit this year’s Green Corn Festival in Bixby June 28-29 and you just might have the chance to see the next American Idol before she’s a star. Alaina Whitaker recently won a competition sponsored by Reasor’s where the grand prize was an all-expenses paid trip to the next American Idol competition.
Of course Alaina, 16, and sister Brittney, 19, are already local stars known as The Whitaker Sisters to captive audiences everywhere. The pair has won numerous local and regional competitions with their powerful voices and love for country music.
The girls have a very long and extremely impressive list of the places they’ve performed including local festivals like Mayfest in Tulsa, the Pecan Festival in Okmulgee, the Bluegrass/Chili Festival in Claremore and out-of-state festivals such as Bransonfest in Missouri and the Bella Vista Fall Festival in Arkansas. Alaina and Britney are repeatedly asked to sing the National Anthem at Talons, Oilers and Drillers games as well as before basketball games at Oral Roberts University and the University of Tulsa. They have performed at famous Nashville spots like the Nashville Palace, ‘Tootsies’ Lounge and Loretta Lynn’s ranch.
Earlier this year, the girls competed together in “My Big Break” and took first place for their duet, “Does He Love You?” by Reba McEntire and Linda Davis. That earned them a $5,000 prize.
“‘Does He Love You’ is definitely my favorite song I sing with Alaina,” says Brittney. “No other duet we sing has as much infraction as that song does.”
The girls also compete individually. In 2004, Brittney was one of the finalists at Branson Idol. Alaina followed her sister’s lead, landing one of the final five spots in 2005. Brittney was a finalist in Channel 2’s “Gimme The Mike” competition. Most impressive, however, would have to be Alaina’s recent accomplishments: in addition to winning Reasor’s “Rising Star” competition on May 26, she also won the 2007 Darryl Starbird’s Car’s and Star’s Idol competition. The prize? An all-expense paid trip to the next American Idol auditions and a spot singing the National Anthem at the 2007 Country Fever concert in Pryor, Okla.
“Country music has always been a part of my life, and it’s a big part of who I am,” Alaina says. “Persistence is what has brought me to where I am now. I feel more than ready to move on and I’m excited about what lies ahead.”
So how did this pair of sisters first discover they could belt out those country tunes? By pure accident, of course.
“My mom got me a karaoke machine when I was really little and I was just goofing around and my mom and grandparents noticed that I wasn’t that bad,” Brittney says. “I did a couple competitions and just sang for fun and snowballed out of that. Alaina started singing about a year or two after me and then we started doing things together.”
While Brittney says the girls naturally have their sister moments, for the most part they love what they do and have the most fun when they’re on stage together.
“We really feed off each other when we’re up there. It’s a lot more fun to be singing a song with her rather than singing alone. We have a great energy and a great thing to do together.”
Their grandmother, Norma Reneau, agrees.
“There’s no competition between them, they really are each other’s biggest fans,” she says with a proud smile.
The sisters pull inspiration from some of country’s biggest female names. Brittney cites Sara Evans and Shania Twain as her favorites, while Alaina says she loves Martina McBride, Patsy Cline and Reba McEntire. Why country?
“I’ve always felt like I was meant to sing country,” Alaina says.
“I like country music because the songs tell stories and a lot of people can relate to them,” Brittney explains. “I love music because people who are great songwriters can put feelings into a song that you otherwise could not explain. It helps others connect with how they’re feeling and can be a way of communicating for people who aren’t so great with words.
“It’s also neat when you find a song and think, ‘that’s exactly how I’m feeling right now,’” and the song becomes a part of you.”
Currently, Brittney attends Oklahoma State University and Alaina is a student at Metro Christian Academy. Despite their distance apart, the girls are still finding ways to perform together and hope to make singing into a career.
“I would definitely love for this to be my profession,” Brittney says. “When I went off to college, I didn’t know how Alaina and I singing together would work. Not being able to do as many shows made me realize how much I love this and that I really want to do this with my life because singing is so important to me. I’m a mess if I don’t sing in a week. I’ll go driving around in my car just so I can sing to myself. It’s definitely a huge passion of mine.”
And with an American Idol audition on the horizon, it looks as though that dream is not far from coming true for one of the Whitaker sisters.
