Pretty and talented seventeen-year-old country singer, Malea Boss, is on the fast track to a musical career and she gives the credit to God and a case of mistaken identity. “I’ve known for my entire life that I wanted to be a singer, but it was one of those things that I hoped would happen, but I’m from South Carolina, so how do you make that happen? It started last August when I needed to make a little demo CD for a school project. My plan was to do some original songs and record it locally. My dad was given the name of someone to contact in Greenville, South Carolina, who could help, but he was given an incorrect phone number. The phone number he was given was for the highly successful Nashville producer, Steve Mauldin. Steve was originally from Greenville and just happened to be coming the next week to visit his dad and he agreed to meet me.”

Malea continues, “He had never heard me sing before and didn’t know what I was capable of. We met and talked for several hours and I gave him a recording of a couple of songs I had done in church. He said he was going to get some songs from some Nashville writers for me to do for the demo and just see what happens. I was to go to Nashville in three weeks to record. I picked out three songs and the week before I went to Nashville, I got an email from Steve that said, “Big news, big news!” The email said I wasn’t going to record one song I had planned on recording, but we would replace it with another one called ‘All That I Have.’ Martina McBride had come in with this song that she had co- written and she wanted a new artist to record it. I was blessed enough to be picked to sing it!”

The recording of the demo went so well Steve became her producer. “He began putting a team together to help me develop as an artist. I also began working on a CD project that I just completed over Spring break. Martina's song is the title song of my new album, entitled, ‘Malea: All that I Have.’ I had my first big concert on May 16th. Steve brought a studio band from Nashville to my hometown of Lexington and the concert was amazing! It was one of the best nights of my life. I was born to do this!"

Malea graduated from high school this year and after traveling back and forth every other weekend, she is now planning a move to Nashville. “This summer I’ll be working trying to get some money and I’m going to move in the fall. I’m going to take a year off from school to really focus on showing what I’ve got, getting myself out there and meeting people. That’s a huge part of it.”

Her parents are behind Malea all the way; “I have the best parents in the world. I don’t think any other parents could be as supportive as mine. They are the ones that drive me to Nashville. My mom is a nurse and she works from four thirty in the morning to four in the afternoon. Those are long hours and she’ll still get up and do what she’s got to do and my dad will do what he has to do. They are giving all that they can financially and emotionally. They are the ones that said for me to take a year off of college. Most parents would say, ‘Go straight into college.’ But they said to go for it.”

Malea has a brother who is eight years older and a sister who is ten years older, “I am the baby, baby, baby of the family. My sister is married and has two little boys that I love to death. It’s almost like being a little child, but they are always around, we’re really close.”

As a child, Malea was raised around music, due in part to her father being a music minister, “My whole family is pretty musical. My mom plays the piano and sings and my dad sings. I had my first solo in church when I was three, it was a short little solo, but I’m sure I sang with as much heart then as I do now. When I’m on stage there’s no feeling to describe it other than I feel at home. There’s nothing else I’d rather do. Everybody loves music. I think it’s something that sets people free. Music is personality.”

“I didn’t know that I was going to be interested in country music until I was in high school because, growing up, all I listened to was the Christian radio station. Then my brother got me hooked on country with George Strait ’s music. My grandfather had passed away and he said, ‘I want you to listen to this song.’ It was the song ‘You’ll Be There.’ I love how country music tells a story. I feel like country music is real, it’s real people. Not that other genres aren’t real, but I just love the way that country is so traditional. And it fits my voice perfectly.”

As a Christian, Malea says, “I hope my faith comes across in my music. My music isn’t Christian music, but I try to keep it positive. I hope when people see me onstage and listen to me sing, they can see a difference.”

Malea hopes that following her dream will help inspire others to do what they love, “To me, being successful isn’t necessarily the money and the fame, it’s doing what you love to do everyday, what you are meant to do, what God meant for you to do, that’s success to me.”

Malea is determined to meet every challenge and opportunity that comes along, having fun at it all the while, “So many adults have told me that they wish they’d gone for it when they had the chance. This is my chance. I’m going to go for it to the extreme. I love what I’m doing and I’m not going to quit until I get to where I want to be.” Laughing, she adds, “There’s a new boss in country music.”