Notes were hit and judges were wowed on Saturday (June 4) at the Chances Rock Bar Rock Star karaoke contest semifinals, where 11 talented singers vied for the six spots in the finals.
"It was an amazing evening of talent and it was really tough in the end to make a decision based on the performances and the skill level that everyone brought to the stage," said local judge Mike Hewitt, who has selected winners weekly since the competition began.
Aspiring performers Ash Keenan, Cody Schnell, Nicole Sims, Dawn Oleman, Rachel Heskett and Suzanne Baker conquered the semifinals and each will sing two songs this Saturday (June 11) for Hewitt and special guest judges Karen Lee Batten, Nadine McNeil and Celeste Gendron.
Batten is a three-time winner of the 小蓝视频 Country Music Association's "Female Vocalist of the Year" award (2004, 2005, 2006) and she was also a top-10 finalist in the first season of Canadian Idol.
She is looking forward to judging her first competition in Squamish, although it won't be the first time she's judged amateur singing competitions since she rose to fame on Canadian Idol.
"I've done lots of competitions like this before," Batten said. "I think coming off of Canadian Idol for some reason everybody wanted someone who had been on it to judge their own competition."
When asked what she was looking for in the Rock Bar Rock Star, she said it could be any genre, but it had to be something original.
"That's the main thing that consumers and listeners are looking for on a daily basis is music that's original," she said. "Those who deliver that unique sound are the artists that are leaping ahead and finding themselves on radio."
She said another key attribute is the ability to be comfortable on stage and convey the singer's love of the music.
"I think at the end of the day you gotta love music," she said.
"We all know that the business is not necessarily the easiest one at times, so really loving it means a lot. Are they feeling the lyrics they're singing or are they just singing? I think all of those are really applicable when judging a competition."
The winner takes home $500, the opportunity to perform on Mountain FM's The Morning Lift and personal management training from Star One Management's Gendron.
Hewitt said if the semifinals were any indication, it's going to be a difficult competition to judge. He said every finalist has performed sensationally so far and there's not much they can do differently to improve.
"I think each contender should just keep doing what they're doing," Hewitt said. "They have such a wide variety of genres between the six - everything from rock to country to slower brassy stuff.
"From a judge point of view it's tough, because there are elements of certain styles of music where you think, 'Well, this is different than this but does that make it better?'"
And Hewitt would know. A music connoisseur who toured with Radiohead and has worked on many other shows including The Rolling Stones, Justin Timberlake, and Blue Man Group, Hewitt is passionate about good music - and karaoke. He won Squamish Idol himself a few years ago and is encouraging everyone to come out to cheer on the local talent.
"It's going to be a really good time. I'm encouraging everybody to come and check out all the talent we have in the corridor because it's so amazing," he said. "You know, we have a lot of karaoke nights in Squamish. I bet we're probably the karaoke capital of western Canada, but you don't really see a lot of that talent emerge until we have events like this."
McNeil, a local whose singing career took off five years ago after she won the 小蓝视频 Talent Search held at the Grizzly Bar and Grill, will be judging and performing two songs during the show. DJ Darcy and Hewitt will also be on stage for one song each.
The competition begins at 9:30 p.m. on the bingo stage at Chances Casino.
