Greentown Teen Top Talent At ‘American Idol’ Auditions
Posted
David Slone-dslone@timesuniononline.com
WABASH – With only 30 seconds each to impress the judges, nearly 60 “American Idol” hopefuls took to the Eagles Theatre stage Saturday in Wabash to win the Silver Ticket.
Kassey King, 18, of Greentown, won first place at Saturday’s “Hoosier Idol” to capture the Silver Ticket, which grants King a one-on-one audition with an “American Idol” executive producer at the next round of auditions in Chicago on Sept. 11.
“Hoosier Idol’s” second- and third-place winners received front-of-the-line passes, which enable them to bypass the line of contestants at the Chicago auditions. Second place went to Jessica Hanna, 24, Wabash, and third place went to Dakota Parker, 22, North Manchester.
ABC 21 and Eagles Theatre hosted Saturday’s auditions for the next season of “American Idol.” The audition was open to contestants between 15 to 28 years old.
The preliminary rounds took place until about 5 p.m., with the top 10 contestants singing in the final audition at 5:30 p.m. The event was free and open to the public to watch.
The four judges were Niyoki Chapman, a backup singer for the late Prince; Jack Hammer, Three Rivers Festival executive director; Aaron Barker, Nashville Hall of Famer and singer-songwriter; and Chris Wallin, Nashville singer-songwriter.
Each contestant in the preliminary round had 30 seconds to sing. The judges awarded each singer 1 to 10 points for vocal performance, 1 to 10 points for appearance and 1 to 5 points for the “X” factor.
After the 10 finalists were announced, each had one minute to perform for the judges again, and then a winner was chosen. The contest was scheduled to have only five final finalists, but the judges struggled with narrowing the list so it was increased to 10.
The first performer started the show off with Beyonce’s “Listen” from the 2006 musical film “Dreamgirls,” with the second contestant singing Meghan Trainor’s “Like I’m Gonna to Lose You.”
Beyonce, Rihanna and Kelly Clarkson were popular choices for the contestants to cover as “Idol” wannabes covered Beyonce’s “If I Were A Boy”; Rihanna’s “Stay”; and Clarkson’s “It’s Quiet Uptown” and “Piece by Piece.”
The song “House of the Rising Sun” by The Animals was covered several times, while Michael Jackson and the Jackson 5 had covers of their songs performed.
Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” was a favorite, but singers covered other artists’ covers of the Cohen classic. A?couple of women covered Eva Cassidy’s rendition of the spiritual song “Wade in the Water.”
Only a few songs were from Broadway musicals, including “I Dreamed A Dream” from “Les Miserables” and “And I’m Telling You I’m Not Going” from “Dreamgirls.”
Two singers performed their original songs.
Other artists covered Saturday included Edwin McCain, Taylor Swift, Bastille, Martina McBride, Miranda Lambert, Fall Out Boy, Whitney Houston, Bruno Mars, The Dixie Chicks, Norah Jones and Chris Stapleton.
By about 3:10 p.m., all those who had been in line for the preliminary rounds had performed, with the last song being “Into The West” by Annie Lennox. Since the auditions were to go for at least another 1-1/2 hours, the judges sang a couple of tunes for the crowd while it waited. Four more singers showed up, putting the total number of contestants at 56.
The other seven top 10 finishers, in no particular order, were Tabitha Hinrichs, 22, Woodburn; Ellen McCool, 16, Noblesville; Rainee Chapman, 18, Fort Wayne; Nathan Nelson, 18, Indianapolis; Dana Miller, 25, Macy; Danny Vachon, 28, Fort Wayne; and Kaylynn Lehman, 15, Roanoke.
