Jonathan Walker/Collegian
Junior Tessa Bloemers, senior Jordan Kleinsmith and junior Betsy Wormet anxiously await the final results for the competition’s winner. Bloemers won first place, Kleinsmith second and Wormet third.
Carrie Underwood may not know it, but she is about to be replaced.
The eight contestants in the Hillsdale edition of American Idol performed Tuesday evening to a crowd that nearly filled the ground level of Phillips auditorium.
The competition was put on by a group of students as a project for their Group Leadership Dynamics class, and to raise money for the Gier Elementary orchestra and band.
“We wanted something that was fun because it would inspire more involvement,” said senior Bonnie Belew, who is taking the class for her Speech minor and was in the group of students who organized the event. “Our goal is just to plan a smooth event, because it’s for a class project and just to raise as much money as possible.”
The event, hosted by Belew and senior Gretchen Rocco, stayed true to several of the original show’s characteristics. The audience voted for the contestant of their choice to advance to the second round and then voted for the first, second, and third place finishers. The contestants performed a song of their choice and then were critiqued on this performance by three judges—“Simon” (senior Matthew Mohr), “Paula” (senior Rachel Purri), and “Randy” (senior Rodney Whaley).
The judges once again displayed the attitudes for which they were famous on the original show.
“I was feelin’ it, dog,” Whaley said several times to contestants throughout the course of the evening.
“I love what you’re doing with the hair these days,” Purri told several contestants.
Mohr came up with a few comments of which even Simon himself could have been proud and that elicited boos from the audience.
“That took guts,” he said to senior Joe Sokoll after his performance. “But as it says, American Idol, not American Idiot.”
Other audience members disagreed.
“Joe Sokoll’s hot,” junior Ali Hoard said after he crooned part of his song to her.
There were several other crowd pleasing performances, including Jordan Kleinsmith’s rendition of “I Believe in a Thing Called Love,” during which some of his fans waved lighters in the air. The lighters appeared again for Kleinsmith’s performance of Johnny Cash’s “Ring of Fire” in the second round. One of his fans, apparently without a lighter, waved an illuminated cell phone instead.
Kleinsmith was joined in the second round by junior Betsy Wormet, who was the first contestant to receive a positive comment from “Simon” that evening, and junior Tessa Bloemers, whose powerful rendition of “Hero” in the first round was made even more memorable when she left the stage to shake the judges’ hands while still singing.
Bloemers topped this performance with an a capella version of “Amazing Grace” in the second round. She was voted the winner of the competition, with Kleinsmith finishing second and Wormet third. The event raised $275 for Gier Elementary.
Overall, the audience appeared to enjoy the event.
“I thought the people did an excellent job organizing [the event],” junior Rachel Ward said. “Judging from the reaction of the crowd, they need to do this more often.”