From Paul McCartney, Vance Joy and Kodaline, through Taylor Swift, Alicia Keys and One Direction, the Wellesley Idol semi-finals brought an eclectic mix of new and old songs across a variety of genres.
While the styles were wide-ranging, one thing all seven contestants had in common, besides youth, was talent.
It was standing room only inside the Wellesley arena on the opening night of the Wellesley-North Easthope Fall Fair, and seven wonderful singers took centre stage for a chance to move onto the final round at the Wellesley Apple Butter and Cheese Festival September 27.
Along with bragging rights, first place wins $500, while second and third receive $300 and $200, respectively.
Madeline Lehman, Ben Cottrill, Scott Carare, Taylor Kelly, Nikita Metzger, Lindsay Slessor and Ella Nafziger all put on a great show, but only three could be selected.
Judges Byron Shantz, Kalina Seifried and Saibal Chakraburtty appreciated the artistic abilities of each performer.
“We want to thank the competitors so very much because we know how much time and effort goes into choosing an outfit, picking a song, getting yourself prepared and pushing your nerves down to get up on stage to perform for all of these people,” said [name]. “The level of talent always exceeds all of our expectations and we are really lucky to be the ones who get to sit hear and listen to all of you perform.”
The chosen three were: Scott Carare, who performed High Hopes by Kodaline; Ben Cottrill, who performed Maybe I’m Amazed by Paul McCartney; and Ella Nafziger who performed Riptide by Vance Joy.
The judges shared a few constructive thoughts on the three finalists.
“Ella, we loved you at the first round, and we loved you during the second round,” said Chakraburtty. “You have this beautiful, angelic, emotional voice. For someone so tiny, I don’t know where it comes from. But you dig deep and that emotion comes out and we can hear it.”
He continued with constructive criticism.
“We loved you behind the piano, you were really, really strong behind the piano, and behind the guitar you were good too, but just not as strong as with the piano. … We hear the emotion in your voice, but we want to see that face of yours. You have a beautiful face, and we want to see you light up and be more expressive.”
In regards to Carare’s performance, Seifried said, “we all agree that you are a really fantastic storyteller and we love that about you. … You are insanely talented. I think you have such a natural stage presence and we really appreciate that. But what we’d like to challenge you with for the next round, is that unfortunately none of us were familiar with that song that you chose. Because there are a lot of men who play guitar who have sort of a similar sound to yours, we’d like to challenge you to choose maybe a more well known song and make it your own.”
Finally, Shantz described Cottrill.
“I think you are wickedly, wickedly talented. You have a gift and it will always be with you; the piano just flows out of you. So I am going to be hard on you here, because you have a gift. I want to see you bring more dynamics to it. So in this song particularly, maybe you want to slow it down and just let it drip out of you. I want to see more out of you. Really own that song.”
Afterwards, Carare and Cottrill commented on the judge’s advice.
“My mom actually told me I should pick a more well known song and I didn’t listen to her and I just picked that song (High hopes) anyways,” Carare, a recent graduate of Elmira District Secondary School laughed. “But it got me through to the next round, so I guess it worked.”
“I haven’t really played that song before (Maybe I’m Amazed), though I’ve known it all my life and I’ve sang it a lot,” Cottrill, a Grade 12 student at EDSS, said. “When you’re doing a song you have done a bunch of times it flows out nicely. But this time, I was pretty happy with how I did. Like Byron Shantz said, it was a little bit fast, but when you’re up there, it happens.“
Both were mum on any potential song choices for the big finale later this month.
