And the winners are... Marybeth Stenhouse, Erin Collison and Jenna Leduc!
The youth segment of Creston’s Best Singer was held at Prince Charles Theatre on Jan. 17, with 13 singers competing, ranging in age from nine to 14, and the top three were announced yesterday.
"It can be intimidating for young people to compete against adults," said producer Vern Gorham. "This levelled the playing field for them, and gave the best a chance to compete later on."
This was the first of three shows in which audience members can vote for their favourite performance.
Seventeen adult singers will be chosen from the quarterfinal contest on Jan. 31, and the top 10 chosen from the Feb. 14 semifial (17 quarterfinal winners combined with the three youth winners) will also allow the audience to choose their top 10 to compete in the March 7 final.
To earn their wins, Stenhouse sang Demi Lovato’s Skyscraper, Collison sang Sara McLachlan’s Angel and Leduc sang Carrie Underwood’s Before He Cheats.
Other competitors included (below, top row from left) Savanna Kerr, Taylor Caughey, Emma Archambault, Sierra Blackmore, Taya Blackmore, (bottom row, from left) Ariel Faulks, Tionna Hall, Lizzie Moore, Tyler Hoeve and Mackenzie Fowler.