VIDEO – It was a tight race for top spot at this year’s Powell River Idol competition. The local talent contest celebrated its 10th year on April 20 with two performances at Max Cameron Theatre. Twelve contestants, all between the ages of 12 to 17, sang solo and group songs to the audience and panel of three judges.
Bill Hopkins directed both events as master of ceremonies and judges Sam Sansalone, Karen Skadsheim and Sam Hurrie scored the performers at the evening show.
“It couldn’t have been any closer,” said event organizer Renelle Wilkene.
Only one point separated the first-place winner from the runner-up after the judges tallied their results.
Dawson Brown, 13, won first place by scoring 135 out of 150. Austin Parise, 17, scored 134 and Cody Jackson, 16, scored 133.
Dawson won $500, a Yamaha acoustic guitar and $75 gift certificate for his first-place win. Austin took home $400.
There wasn’t a second runner-up prize for the contest, but some unexpected generosity changed that. Dawson, who was so struck by Cody’s guitar playing, decided to give him the guitar he won after he discovered that Cody was just learning and did not have a guitar.
Later Wilkene, who is Dawson’s mother, asked her son if his decision was spontaneous. He told her he had decided earlier, “If there’s any way I win, I’m going to give that guitar to Cody.”
“It was my proud mother moment,” she said. “The fact that he won was all great, but the core of who that boy is inside, that’s what brought tears to my eyes.”
Dawson sizzled with his cover of Bruno Mars’s “When I Was Your Man,” and Cee Lo Green’s “Forget You.”
Not only did Dawson win the first prize in the competition, he also won the People’s Choice awards at both the afternoon matinee and the evening show which added another $400 to his winnings.
“I have no say in who gets in or who gets picked for anything,” said Wilkene. “I’m completely behind the scenes. I knew he was good, but I didn’t expect this.”
Besides having boys win the competition, Wilkene said there were a number of other firsts this year. It was the first time it was held at the Max, which she thought would be a better venue for sound and production, and the first time two performances were scheduled. Attendance for the afternoon matinee was limited and the 400-seat theatre didn’t have enough capacity for the evening performance.
“I thought it would be win-win,” said Wilkene. “We’re paying for the theatre for the day, and it gives the kids a chance to have a preview show. It’s their school, so I thought they’d be more comfortable, too. Live and learn. In the past, we’ve always had just one big show.”
It was the first year that the winner was given a trophy. “It’s the 10th year and we haven’t had a trophy before,” she said. “I think it’s important.”
Every year the previous winner comes back to the stage to give an encore performance. As this was the first year Wilkene has been involved from the beginning, she decided to start a trophy that each year’s winner could have their name engraved on and then have it passed down to the next year’s winner. “It’ll make it a bigger deal,” she added.
She said that next year she will likely move the competition back to Evergreen Theatre, at Powell River Recreation Complex, with its larger capacity and plans on announcing auditions earlier in the hopes of having more performers come out to share their talents.
“I’m already looking forward to next year,” she said.
