Country music, original songs and interpretive and acrobatic dance were the themes of the night at the fourth annual Prince Rupert’s Got Talent variety show on Saturday evening.
And the big winner of the $1,000 prize for the 18 contestants aged 25-and-under was Hannah Proksch. Hannah wrote an original song based on her recent experiences losing a couple people close to her.
“I’ve been going through some stuff,” she told the crowd before moving them with an emotional ballad, singing and playing guitar solo on stage.
Ben Cornwall played a tune by country superstar newcomer Brett Eldredge to finish the first half of the show on a western note. Cornwall had the best audience interaction element of the night within his performance, engaging the listeners with some banter and had a great introduction by MC Sean Carlson, who noted Cornwall worked part-time at Home Hardware and drove a 90s’ four-by-four pickup truck to add to his image. Cornwall won $500 and second-place.
In third was Gianna Evans, whose interpretive and flowing dance matched the lyrics of her chosen song extremely well and earned her the $250 prize.
Aside from some microphone issues which interrupted the performances of Lillian Zahri and Adrianna DesChamp, who dazzled the crowd with their professionalism and steadiness on stage while singing and having their feed come in and out (and later blowing it out of the water with performances in the second half with a working mic), the show went off without a hitch.
Carlson got better as the night wore on and went with the flow, culminating in a terrific dance number with Justina Vendittelli that left him breathless in his final MCing duties of the night.
Judges Michael Gurney, Jewel Jerstad and Bobby Tarr were proud of all the participants, thanking them for their “extraordinarily talented” gifts they were brave enough to share with the audience.
David Iverson, Karlie Fudger, Emilie Strand, Lola Clouthier, Taryn Wesley, Shade Arendt, Tala Whiting, Aspen Campbell, Assorted Goods consisting of Miguel Cachero, Ciaran Dudley, Jeric Nolos, Zac Paolo and Kyle Proksch, Derin Erinomo, Dana Chetwynd, Tien Cam, Leona Truong, Miranda Baker, Katrina Duong and Gillian Jardim all rounded out a superb night of talent and showed the North Coast a wealth of both artistic and professional stage presence as well as creativity in their performances.