For the 30 hopefuls who tried out in the Creston’s Best Singer audition show on Jan. 19, the wait is over. The top 20 were announced this morning at I Love Creston, the result of compiling the scores of 250 audience members.
With audiences scoring each singer out of 10, a lot of adding was required — producer Vern Gorham and volunteers Cara Campen, Kelly Gregr and Lorraine Biddles spent three hours the day after the audition show adding up the score sheets, producing some interesting results.
“I was surprised that the people’s choice winner got as many votes as it did, that there was so much separating it from the rest,” said Gorham.
The top 10, he added, each received 1,500 points or more, out of a possible 2,500.
“We had one group finish significantly higher than the rest, and another group that was really close together,” he said.
Among the top 20 was the oldest constant, John Herbaut — a singer from an earlier edition of Creston’s Best Singer, who enchanted the audience with his rendition of La Vie En Rose — and the youngest that will compete next week, nine-year-old Alexi Blackmore, who was a dead ringer for the original artist, Selena Gomez, when she sang Love You Like A Love Song.
The others who made it through to the Feb. 9 semifinals with a wide range of styles, including country, jazz and rock — and those who didn’t get in will have another chance in 2013.
“I was very pleased with how well some of the younger singers scored,” said Gorham. “Some of those younger singers didn’t make it to the second round, but their talent bodes well for the future.”
Tickets are $8 for seniors/students/children and $10 for adults in advance at Black Bear Book or Kingfisher Used Books, and $12 at the door.