In this BIT: American Idol winner Maddie Poppe shares her rise to success, advice on how to manage criticism, and tips for aspiring musicians.
Icon and American Idol winner, Maddie Poppe, is an award-winning singer and songwriter. Maddie has always been passionate about music. She found her voice by performing for her family, and continued to grow in her talent by performing at school, as an independent artist, and winning American Idol. Alongside her various successes, Maddie is a young adult, and has gone through many of the same ups-and-downs that we have experienced. Below, Maddie shares with us how she, as an artist, manages criticism, separates feedback from negativity, and her top tips for aspiring musicians.
Maddie Poppe: Music has always been in my family, mostly on my dad’s side. Both of his parents were musicians. Music was always around in my house, as long as I can remember. My dad was in many different bands and often had people come over to either record or rehearse at the house.
Music was never forced on me, of course my dad hoped one of his kids would take interest, but wanted us to want it for ourselves. I got my first guitar in third grade, I tried it for a day and then put it back in the closet because it was too complicated. A few years passed and I decided I wanted to try it again, and I haven’t really put it down since!
The biggest challenge was probably learning that “comparison is the thief of joy” is 100% accurate. It’s so hard, especially today with social media, to not constantly compare yourself to other people. And when your job is literally to “stay relevant”, it’s hard to not compare yourself to other artists who seem to be doing it better than you. It took a really long time, but I finally was able to just do what made me happy, not try to follow a trend or obsess over views and streams.
It sounds cliche, but I think you really have to: be confident, find your lane, and stick to it. I still struggle with that daily. If you are unsure of yourself, it’s much easier for people’s negative thoughts to waiver you. I do know that in the times where I was absolutely certain and was ready to give it 110%, it was much harder for people’s opinions or negative comments to get to me.
Credit: Philthy Mag
This is a tough one. With social media, it can be really hard to decipher tone and context. A lot of times this can get misconstrued when not talking face to face. I think you just have to be open minded, and again, certain of yourself, but still open to hearing ideas and occasionally critiques.
Start from a place of true happiness. When you become overly competitive and rely so much on what others want for you is when you really start to lose the joy. At the end of the day, all of that can vanish, and people will come and go, so you really have to do what’s best for you and what makes you happiest, because at the end of the day you’re the one who has to live it.
My family, who I talk with almost every single day.
We hope that Maddie Poppe’s advice for how to manage criticism gives you a small bit of happiness and helps you manage feedback.
Find Maddie here:
Website: https://maddiepoppe.com/
Instagram: @maddiepoppe
For more happiness check out our Mood Boost page.
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