If you haven’t heard of Whitney Doucet, that is likely to change. The 23-year-old Fitchburg woman is securing performances of increasingly large scale. How big? Let’s just say she’s shared the stage with Australian country music star Keith Urban.

Doucet started down the path of becoming a professional singer when she won a high school talent show. Over the years, Doucet has done everything from participating in local talent shows and auditioning for American Idol and The X Factor to performing in restaurants and at Fenway Park. As a teenager, Doucet studied vocals at Bristol Recording and Voice Studios in Boston, where she now teaches.

“When I first started out, I was afraid to sing in front of other people,” Doucet said. “After practicing and getting proper voice lessons, I became a lot more comfortable.” That confidence proved essential, as Doucet has since sung the national anthem at a New England Revolution game and the New Hampshire Motor Speedway.

It’s not always the large crowds, like the 80,000 people she performed for last year at NASCAR, that make her nervous. Sometimes, it’s the more intimate venues that are the most stressful. “With a small audience, you can see each person’s face; you can almost have a conversation with them,” Doucet said. “I get more nervous when there are less people because of that; I can see them staring at me.”

The singer/songwriter’s most recent big break was the result of winning a contest of Country 102.5 WKLB radio station. Armed with her phone, she shot a video of herself singing Urban’s “We Were Us” and submitted it to the station. Soon, she received the congratulatory phone call she’d been waiting for ~ she would be singing a duet with Urban at his Raise ‘Em Up concert.

The performance with the Grammy Award-winning Urban at the Xfinity Center in Mansfield, marked one of the highlights of Doucet’s career. “Keith gave me a hug, and as soon as I heard that first riff from the song, I just felt so happy that I was finally about to do something I have worked so hard for,” she said. “I thought to myself, ‘Whit, here you go; now give it your all, here’s your chance!'”

While her appearance with Urban is certainly notable, the rising star still has milestones she’d like to reach. “I really hope to put an album out. I want to be able to push my own music and find someone to go on tour with,” Doucet said. “My biggest goal is to open for someone, or at least sing, at Gillette Stadium during a country show.”

Doucet doesn’t show signs of losing momentum any time soon. In fact, she will be heading to Nashville this fall to record some original songs and will likely sneak in a few performances.

For more information on Doucet and her upcoming performances, visit facebook.com/whitneydoucet or reverbnation.com/whitneydoucet

To see Whitney’s performance with Keith Urban, click below.
Keith Urban ‘We Were Us’ with Whitney Doucet

By Maxine Giza