Raising voices to win ‘WU Idol’

By Monica Kreber
kreberm@mytjnow.com

Randy, Paula and Simon will not be making any appearance-the Winthrop Association of Ebonites will provide the judges for the upcoming Winthrop Idol competition.

“This is my first year organizing Winthrop Idol,” Verona Cabbagestalk, judge, said, “but it’s been going on ever since the show came on TV. Now it’s a tradition for our organization.”

Auditions for Winthrop Idol were held in Wofford basement on Sept. 21. Last year, Cabbagestalk said they had seven contestants in the performance.

Students were debriefed on what to show the judges as they came into Wofford basement to audtion: each participant was asked to give a snippet of a song –it did not even have to be the song they planned on singing – as long as the song contained no curse words, nothing derogatory and nothing that “isn’t representative of Winthrop.”

The actual Winthrop Idol event is set for Oct. 5.

“Last year I know the winner received $100,” Cabbagestalk said, “but this year I know we are trying to do something else…there is still going to be an ample amount of money.”

Cabbagestalk said the audience at last year’s event was very interactive as the contestants performed.

“Of course, we tell them ‘no booing’; this isn’t Apollo,” Cabbagestalk said, “but we want the audience to be engaged and cheer on the person –  don’t make them feel like they should be afraid to get on stage; that’s a big accomplishment.”

Cabbagestalk also described the event as “unified” because it brings the contestants, audience and event organizers together.

“We already have two judges confirmed,” she said. “We have to know how many people are auditioning and then we will know what order to put them in. We wanted to be as random as possible.”

Among the students that auditioned Wednesday night was freshman music performance major Anna Dickinson, who gave a snippet of the Star Spangled Banner.

“I like performing in front of people,” she said. “I think it’s fun. I saw the ad, and I thought that this might be interesting.”

Freshman exercise science major Kiara Smalls said she auditioned in order to step out of her box.

“I decided to audition because I thought would be a good experience in order to get my vocals out,” she said.

Smalls said she is doing Winthrop Idol for the experience more than anything else.

“If I won it would mean a lot to me,” she said, “but then it’s also getting myself out there because I’m a shy person, so it’s kind of like I’m bringing people to me instead of just walking up to other people, so it’s really for the experience.”

Senior family and consumer sciences major Robert Harris is the other confirmed judge for Winthrop Idol.

“In Winthrop Idol we are looking for exceptional individuals that want to showcase the talents that we have here at Winthrop,” he said.