The eight Idol hopefuls, back row, left to right, Utsab Roychowdhury, Dylan Thomas, Mallory Earnshaw, Jenna Lorenz and Joel Fawthrop; front, Brittany Greig, Hailey Patrice and Mackenzie Shular.

Hub Staff

Hollywood hits were belted out at the second annual Royal Idol at Saugeen District Secondary School (SDSS) May 15. After 17 auditions, only eight students made the cut to perform their favourite songs from movie soundtracks in front of the entire student body as well as visiting students from Northport Elementary School.

Out of the eight performers, Jenna Lorenz, Hailey Patrice and Dylan Thomas were crowned the winners by judges Keith Day, Bethany Boyd and Mr. Darlington (D-Licious) who are also teachers at the high school.

Royal Idol gave many students the opportunity to sing solos for the first time in front of a crowd, as was the case with the first act of the night by grade 11 student Mackenzie Shular, who sang Amy Winehouse’s “Valerie”.

“I love Amy Winehouse, she's always been one of my idols and everyone says that the way that I sound when I sing really suits that song,” said Shular, who got up the courage to audition this year.

“Original I wasn't going to audition and then my vocal teacher told me I should. The second I found out I made it in, I was practising every day. I was making sure my stage
presence and everything else was all set for today.”

Following Shular’s stellar performance, cowboy for the day Joel Fawthrop entertained the judges and audience with his spot-on rendition of Toby Keith’s “Beer for my Horses”, from the movie of the same name. The judges told Fawthrop that he had “beautiful stage presence,” and definitely “rattled some windows in Nashville”. With Mrs. Boyd hinting that Joel’s performance looked better than the movie from which it came.

Next up was student Brittany Greig, who came in second place last year. Singing “Ho Hey” by the Lumineers from the Silver Linings Playbook. Judges noted that Greig was calm and had great poise on stage.

Having been dared to audition, Dylan Thomas spent his last few days of high school performing for the first time. While strumming his guitar, Thomas sang Ed Sheeran’s “I See Fire”, which earned him third place. Judge D-Licious said that he could see Thomas doing this more in the future, with Mrs. Boyd noting that this was probably the only good thing that has ever come out of a dare.

Student Mallory Earnshaw brought the soul with the Etta James classic “At Last” which was featured on the Pleasantville soundtrack. Judges told her that she “handled a lot of soul, stunningly”.

Following Earnshaw, last year’s winner, Hailey Patrice sang “Listen” from the Dreamgirls soundtrack. Patrice’s performance left Mrs. Boyd “absolutely astonished”, while judge D-Licious told her that she would never be a backup singer.

Winner of Royal Idol was grade 12 student Jenna Lorenz, who sang solo in front of a large crowd for the first time during her performance of Sam Smith’s “Writings on the Wall”, from the James Bond film “pectre. ”The way you switched to the minor key was fantastic,” said Mrs. Boyd; while Mr. Day told her that she was a “kite dancing in a hurricane”.

Closing the show was showman Utsab Roychowdhury with his onion, who assumed the role of the grumpy ogre, Shrek, singing Smash Mouth’s “I’m a Believer”. His performance gave Mr. Day onion-sized goosebumps.

Royal Idol winner Jenna Lorenz said singing has been her hobby but she didn't expect to win, “I wasn't really thinking about doing Royal Idol at first. I was just listening to music doing my homework and I listened to this song (Writings on the Wall), and I was like ‘Hey, I can sing this one’, and so I decided to audition with it.” Lorenz will be attending University in British Columbia to study Marine Biology in the fall.

The top three idols, left to right, Hailey Patrice came (second), Jenna Lorenz (first) and Dylan Thomas (third).

On the left, Hailey Patrice placed second after singing “Listen” from the Dreamgirls' Soundtrack, during SDSS’s Royal Idol, May 15. On the right, Grade 12 student Jenna Lorenz wowed the audience and judges with her performance of Sam Smith’s ‘Writings on the Wall’, and was dubbed the winner.

On the left, Grade 12 student Utsab Roychowdury channeled his inner Shrek during Royal Idol, unfortunately he did not develop a taste for onions. On the right, Joel Fawthrop’s song, ‘Beer for my Horses’ by Toby Keith was a hit with the audience.

Dylan Thomas completed his victory lap with a third place finish at SDSS’s Royal Idol, where he performed for the first time in front of a crowd to Ed Sheeran’s “I See Fire”.

Judges Mr. Day (left), Mrs. Boyd and D-Licious had a tough time choosing the top three student at Royal Idol, May 15.