Melanie Sanders

Melanie Noelle Sanders hails from the river city of Vicksburg, Mississippi. She is the daughter of Attorney Marshall Sanders and Deborah Pickett Sanders. Presently Melanie is a senior at Spelman College where she is majoring in Sociology Pre-law and plans to attend law school in the future. In 1997, Melanie was chosen 1st Runner up in the Miss Mississippi TEEN USA pageant where she was later featured on the Learning Channel documentary entitled "The Secret World of...Beauty Pageants". This documentary landed Melanie a spot on Entertainment Tonight (1981). She was also filmed for a documentary on The Discovery Channel. However, Melanie's television appearances did not begin here, she also had an opportunity to appear on B.E.T., the The Oprah Winfrey Show (1986), and has done television commercial work. In 1999, Melanie was crowned Miss Vicksburg and took on her personal platform issue entitled "Love For Kids in Foster Care". Melanie has worked with children in foster care for the past several years in different capacities. She has hosted the "Lookin' To the Future" statewide conference for four years and has worked with the "Luggage for Kids" campaign. Along with her love for children in foster care, as well as a love for singing, Melanie entered into the Miss America Pageant system placing 4th Runner-up and later 2nd Runner-up to Miss Mississippi. Melanie's passion in life is her love for performing. Melanie has been performing since age eleven. Since this time she has been blessed to have sang onstage with the legendary Temptations and for celebrities such as WNBA star Cheryl Swoopes, and R&B sensation Montell Jordan. Recently, Melanie had the honor of being selected from 10,000 hopefuls auditioning for Fox's television smash American Idol (2002). She was chosen a Top 30 finalist and appeared before millions during the show's debut, and then later competed on the show's third episode. Since then Melanie has performed at the MGM Grand Hotel for a two hour American Idol special entitled "American Idols in Las Vegas" which led to her making her second and third appearances on Entertainment Tonight (1981). Melanie has also been written about as well as featured in "TV Guide". She is a member of AFTRA (American Federation of Television & Radio Artists), and has recently landed a role in an independent film entitled "Amora: The Inquisition", directed by Muta Ali, grandson of legendary actors Ossie Davis and Ruby Dee. She is also a proud member of the Spelman College Jazz Ensemble, an all female jazz band directed by jazz musician Joseph Jennings. Each spring Melanie tours the East Coast with the ensemble for a six city tour that ends at Harlem's Schomberg Theatre. Just recently Melanie was a guest performer at the National Civil Rights Museum's 2002 "Freedom Awards" in Memphis, Tennessee, which honored Civil Right's pioneer 'Julian Bond' and Nobel Peace Prize winner 'Rigoberta Menchu-Tum'. She also performed at the "From Legend to Legacy" forum at the church of Bishop G.E. Patterson. Melanie lives by the motto, "With success comes challenge and with challenge comes success," and that battles of the world are never yours, but the Lord's.