Singers, stunts and showstoppers: Vocal duo wins annual Talent Search

Acts step off the stage during the Talent Search intermission Oct. 17, 2018, at Emens Auditorium. Admits Homecoming week, students compete in the Talent Search to receive scholarships. Alex Straw,DN
Acts step off the stage during the Talent Search intermission Oct. 17, 2018, at Emens Auditorium. Admits Homecoming week, students compete in the Talent Search to receive scholarships. Alex Straw,DN

Ball State students’ talents were on full display Tuesday night at Emens Auditorium.

The annual Talent Search, which has been a part of Homecoming week for 34 years, drew 20 competing acts before an excitable crowd.

Talent Search Chair Riley Thompson said around 45 different acts signed up to compete, but only 20 were selected for the show after auditions.

Seven categories made up the Talent Search, featuring instrumental, male and female vocal, musical group, acoustic, freestyle and original composition performances. The winner of each group took home a prize of $500 in scholarships, with the overall winner receiving an additional $500 in scholarships.

The winners of the categories were:

Ben Maynard- Instrumental

Megan Tiller- Acoustic

Miles Jena- Male Vocal

Eliah Johnson- Female Vocalist

Grace Lavier, Eric Hinojosa, & Elise McQueen- Freestyle

Chase Andreae & Macey Arrington- Musical Group

JT Butler & Terica Anthony- Original Composition

Chase Andreae and Macey Arrington also were honored as the overall winners of the competition with their rendition of “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough”

“Chase and I are doing ‘Ain’t No Mountain High Enough’ because we’re best buddies and he’s graduating this year so this will be our last big show,” Arrington said. 

A wide array of styles, genres and skills were featured, including the jump-roping trio of Grace Lavier, Eric Hinojosa and Elise McQueen, barbershop quartet Cardinal Rule and comedian Max Haywood.

Singers ultimately dominated the show, making up over half of the events. All but one act, comedian Max Haywood’s standup routine, featured music in some way.

“This year we do have a lot of singers, but we have diverse songs and diverse styles,” Thompson said.

Some acts, like Savannah Rang’s original composition “Pink Lemonade” kept the audience on the edge of their seats, while others, like JT Butler and Terica Anthony’s composition “Move On” garnered near-constant cheers from the audience.

While the crowd was geared up, Anthony said creating original compositions is no small feat.

“Me and JT have been writing music since freshman year, so it’s just been a collective of different things we’ve been working,” Anthony said. “It took me a summer to write [“Move On”]. Normally it doesn’t take this long, but this one was a process of deciding what I wanted to say and what the story is that I wanted to tell.”

2017 overall winner Paige Matteson ended the show with a rendition of Sara Bareilles’ “Gravity” before the winners were announced and the Homecoming court was crowned.

Contact John Lynch with comments at jplynch@bsu.edu.

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