The Soo's Got Talent 2022 Finals Recap (Part 1!!)

At long last, let's begin looking at the final results of this year's Soo's Got Talent competition, which ended on Friday, October 21st with the final round at Soo Blaster as expected! I do apologize for the delays in this making the site, Passion Video Productions uploaded their videos from the event on October 25th, but life and other SMS posts got in the way over the past two weeks. Everything pertinent from the six finalists, guest performers, and announcements can be seen on the T.S.G.T. Facebook page, so if you weren't in attendance on the 21st, what went down? Enough material for at least two SMS posts, that's what! The first video features introduction of the judges from co-organizer Barbara Rajnovich, and out first guest performance of the evening, courtesy of judge/ex-Obsession frontwoman Valerie Powley covering The Motels' "Only The Lonely". Not as hard rocking as Obsession often got with her, but strongly sung as you'd expect!

The opening performance of each of the six finalists (all singers only unless otherwise stated) and their respective judges' remarks were held next, starting with Nanette Garcia covering Adele's "Rolling In The Deep", followed by singer/guitarist Colin Gasparelli playing an apparent original song, possibly named "It's Alright". Xavier Pelletier LeBeouf (who was also a finalist in 2019 under a different first name) covered Kate Bush's "Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God)" next, with Ali Nisbett covering "Rolling In The Deep" again as the fourth performer, but with a twist. Here, she's singing the song overtop an instrumental backing track of Survivor's "Eye Of The Tiger", a mash-up that has existed online since not long after the Adele song came out. At least this way, Nanette and Ali didn't verbatim do the same song, so hopefully there was no conflict, but the slower intro for Nanette's is also a variation.

"Eye of the Tiger" is a hard rock song, overplayed as it may be, so hearing a totally different song fit it so well is neat, and Ali sings this one very well! Remember that she did cover Journey in the semifinals too, so classic rock is not entirely unexpected from her. Give Ali's mashup cover a look below!

Fifth up was Amanda Phillips covering Andra Day's "Rise Up", and the first half of the finalist performances ended with Maharlika Joy (or M.J.) Servillon covering The Fugees' version of "Killing Me Softly". Next we got the intermission performance by local alternative hard rock quintet Handsome Sandwich, who played two original songs, namely "No Idea" (which is brand new unless it's only been played live) and their early, pre-Rafael original "Bitter". Very fun and lively performances from Handsome Sandwich, which will no doubt continue the good momentum towards the release of "Lettuce" (albeit allegedly not coming until May), and this gives Taylor a chance to sing before handing the mic off to the other finalists! We'll save those performances for our next post due to the amount, as I want to spotlight all six on the site, but give Handsome Sandwich's intermission songs a watch below!

To close today's post, let's jump ahead to the judges' deliberations, where 2019 Soo's Got Talent winner Adrian Sullivan returned for two guest songs! This mirrors that year's event, when then-reigning 2018 champion Daniella Brewer returned for a guest performance at the finals, so might this year's winner do the same next fall? At the time of his win in 2019, Adrian was working on his to-debut local band The Uncanny Valley, whose psychedelic-tinged hard rock has become a popular rising sight at local concerts, but neither of his songs here ("Carry On" & "Bleeding Soul") are familiar as Uncanny Valley originals. That said, you can hear "Carry On" and many other early solo songs of Adrian's on his Soundcloud page (under the name "Adrian Taylor"), which he updated through the spring of 2020. As acoustic performances, neither is overly heavy in this form, but both are well done!

Adrian has a good handle on 1970s singer-songwriter type music, and if these were adapted to The Uncanny Valley, they could easily be pumped up to match! Good stuff, so give Adrian's performance a look below! Full disclosure, returning guest judge Tim Murphy did not perform a song as advertised on the event posters (if he did, Passion Video didn't upload it).

Our next T.S.G.T. post(s?) will cover the second song from the finalists, where they all performed with the instrumentalists in Handsome Sandwich for a song each, so how do they do with a live band? Find out then, with other news and notes to follow on the site also! Thanks everyone!

LOCAL CONCERT ALERT (Handsome Sandwich) & Our Soo's Got Talent 2022 Semifinal Recap!!

With less than a week to go before The Soo's Got Talent crowns its third winner, let's belatedly recap what went down at the semifinals at Soo Blaster on Saturday, October 1st! As before, remaining contestants were judged by judges Darren Robertson, Mike Severin, and Valerie Powley, with Passion Video Productions on hand once again to film everything for the T.S.G.T. Facebook page, with videos being posted on October 5th. All ten surviving contestants are singers (with two also featuring guitar), with finalists noted in italics, and like in past years, each contestant got two performances for making it this far. From how the videos are edited, each semifinalist performed once for the judges, were scored based on that song, and then returned after everyone else sang once to tackle one non-scored song each, some with wardrobe changes. First up was Greg McLeod, who tackled two classic rock songs.

He first covered Electric Light Orchestra's "Rock N' Roll Is King" for the judges, then wore a Team Canada jersey to cover The Tragically Hip's "Blow At High Dough". Second on the 1st was Wendy Hord, who brought in a friend named Jeff (not a prior competitor) to do an original song for the judges that may have been titled "Four Leaf Clover". Her second Jeff-less song was a cover of Kaye Ballard's "Fly Me To The Moon". Third was Christopher Halliday, whose for-scoring cover was of Ben E. King's "Stand By Me", following that by tackling Natalie Imbruglia's "Torn". Next we had Xavier Pelletier Leboeuf, who sang Bonnie Tyler's "Total Eclipse Of The Heart" before singing Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah", complete with a huge wardrobe change into Ann Wilson-ish attire. The first half concluded with singer/guitarist Colin Gasparelli with an original possibly named "Walk Away" before doing a cover(!) of Styx's  "Suite Madame Blue".

Semifinalist #6 is Nanette Garcia who covered the Whitney Houston version of "I Will Always Love You" and "Titanium" by David Guetta featuring Sia. She was followed by Amanda Phillips for covers of Lady Gaga's "You & I" and Gretchen Wilson's "Here For The Party", with Deuteronomy Nigas up next to cover Michael Bolton's "Go The Distance" and Mariah Carey's "Always Be My Baby". The penultimate contestant was Maharlika Joy Servillon, who covered Toni Braxton's "Un-Break My Heart" & Whitney Houston's "I Wanna Dance with Somebody (Who Loves Me)". The semifinals closed with Ali Nisbett, who covered Idina Menzel's "Let It Go" (complete with blue Elsa-style dress) and a plainclothes but enthusiastic cover of Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'".  Not a whole lot here for hard rock/metal fans, with Greg's songs and Colin & Ali's AOR rock covers likely to pique SMS reader interest the most, so head there first if you're a "rock or bust" type.

As noted in italics and the reveal video from the 1st, Xavier, Colin, Nanette, Amanda, M.J., and Ali were sent through by the judges to the finals THIS FRIDAY at Soo Blaster, so consider this a SHORT NOTICE LOCAL CONCERT ALERT, as all six will be performing with round 1 guest performers Handsome Sandwich as a backing band! Apologies for the short notice on only getting to the finals now, I wanted to cover all prior rounds on the SMS first so the timeline of events was maintained. Of course, Handsome Sandwich have been on the T.S.G.T. radar since the summer, and after rocking out with songs from their forthcoming debut album on September 9th, now they'll provide a full live backing track for the finalists. Not sure if this was always the plan given that not every contestant was a singer, and how this will work on FRIDAY isn't entirely clear (i.e. how many covers do they know/are willing to learn, how will Taylor be involved), but it'll be interesting to find out!

Also no word on if Handsome Sandwich will bring their own hard rock/alternative originals back for any portion of the night. Also advertised on FRIDAY is judge/ex-Obsession singer Valerie Powley for another guest performance, while prolific local stage actor/musician Tim Murphy will return as a guest judge and finals performer. The finals take place on FRIDAY at 5:00 PM, this is an all ages event, and admission is $15 at the door or $10 for kids 12 and under, with proceeds going to The Brain Injury Association of Sault Ste. Marie & District. Should be an exciting conclusion to The Soo's Got Talent III, so visit the above links for complete details, and stay tuned for more on the site next week! Thanks everyone!

The Soo's Got Talent 2022 First Round Recap (Part 2!!)

Rather than put off our coverage of The Soo's Got Talent's first round performances any further, let's cover the last 12 opening round performers (and more) today! In case you don't look at yesterday's post on the first half of the Friday, September 9th event at Soo Blaster, just a reminder that judges Darren Robertson, Mike Severin, and Valerie Powley were on hand to help send the 15 highest scoring performers to the second round one week later. Passion Video Productions filmed all performers for the T.S.G.T. Facebook page (uploaded two weeks later), Mike Blair handled the sound with his 705Live Sound Co., and co-organizer Barbara Rajnovich was the MC. Of the final 12 first round performers, all are just singers unless otherwise stated, and those who advanced to round 2 have their name in italics. The second half began with singer/guitarist Steven Jensen (The Four Seasons' "December, 1963 (Oh, What A Night)"), ...

...Christopher Halliday (A Great Big World's "Say Something"), the unfilmed-at-auditions Senta Saylor (Harry Styles' "Falling"), and Nanette Garcia (Loren Allred's "Never Enough"), before Colin Gasparelli returned with another apparent original song, possibly named "Get Used To It", this time singing and playing guitar rather than the keyboard from his audition. Young local dancer Yousef Al Islam next did a martial arts-inspired routine to Sean Paul's "Temperature", and we keep away from singers next with the fourth of five performers not filmed at the auditions, namely Brooke Coghill, a magician who performs under the name McSterious. My dad would approve of some new blood getting into the craft! Brooke did two tricks in round 1, with Colin Gasparelli returning as one of her assistants. The last five performers are all musicians, with the twentieth up being Wendy Hord (Rihanna's "Stay").

The last of five qualifiers not filmed at the Wacky Wings auditions is next, that being Selena Oulette (The Hush Sound's "You Are The Moon"). Closing round 1 were Ali Nisbett (Keala Settle's "This Is Me"), singer/guitarist Jason Morbin (Van Morrison's "Brown Eyed Girl"), and Maharlika Joy (M.J.) Servillon (Whitney Houston's "Miracle"). While a lot of pure talent was on display, no hard rock or punk songs were covered in the second half of the first round, but genre fans weren't completely left out in the lurch late, as local alternative/punk quartet Handsome Sandwich were tapped as a guest performer for round 1 at Soo Blaster! Once again, I profusely apologize for missing this, but neither The Soo's Got Talent nor the band promoted their involvement in advance (though this does explain why T.S.G.T. were plugging & taking pictures of Handsome Sandwich on Facebook this summer, seemingly apropos of nothing).

On September 9th, Handsome Sandwich played two mini-sets to break up the program, with Mitch Sirie oddly sitting out their two intermission songs, returning on guitar for the finale. On bass throughout was Rafael Medina, an Algoma University music student & 705Live staffer who I'm unfamiliar with from other local bands. However, Rafael has been pictured in some band materials since late August, including their Whisky Barrel concert last month and this picture of most of the band in post-production for their forthcoming debut album "Lettuce". This would heavily imply that Rafael has joined Handsome Sandwich, but they have not firmly put it in writing. Also, apologies for erroneously saying last month that the fifth person in this poster was Dunbar Thompson from The Whisky Barrel, Occam's Razor led me wrong there. In the intermission performance, Taylor only titled their first song ("Without You").

Their closing 14 minute set featured less stage banter, but a five-piece Sandwich played mostly originals, plus a surprise cover of Tones & I's "Dance Monkey" (remember, the band officially has "no genre"). When Barbara came back on stage after their intermission set, she noted that their album is scheduled to come out on May 5th, 2023. How oddly specific given that we're seven months out! The performances here are lively and add enough hard rock zest to keep genre fans happy, and assuming Rafael is 100% a new band member, he shows solid bass skill! Fun as you'd hope, so give Handsome Sandwich's guest spots on the 9th a look above & below!

The advancing contestants were revealed in this video and in post-show advertising, and we'll cover round 2 of The Soo's Got Talent III later this week, to see how the 15 surviving performers were whittled down to 10 before the October 1st semifinals. That's all for today, but stay tuned for this month's Defunct Local Band Profile on the site next! Thanks everyone!

The Soo's Got Talent 2022 First Round Recap (Part 1!!)

Let's take a look at the first official round of the third annual The Soo's Got Talent competition today, and again, apologies for the delay in our coverage of this event! As you may know, The Soo's Got Talent returned to its 2019 home of Soo Blaster for the round of 24 on Friday, September 9th, with the 15 highest scoring competitors advancing to the second round one week later. Like in 2018 & 2019, the shows from this point on were publically attendable, and proceeds for T.S.G.T. are going to the Brain Injury Association of Sault Ste. Marie & District. Great cause! As covered on SooToday, this year's judges included local musician Darren Robertson (who judged both previous installments), Borderline radio host Mike Severin (a returnee from 2019), and ex-Obsession frontwoman Valerie Powley, replacing Lesley Walsh Tibbin, while 705Live have been manning the sound. With all of that said, what all went down during round #1 last month?

Local film company Passion Video Productions are taking care of all official video footage for the public rounds, and all were posted to the T.S.G.T. Facebook page on September 21st & 22nd, so let's look at the first half today. The first video uploaded from the first round is actually of introductions by co-organizer, theatre director, and my old librarian at Bawating, Barbara Rajnovich, followed by video of a guest song by Valerie Powley, namely a vocal cover of Aaron Neville's "Tell It Like It Is". Bit of a leap from what we're used to her singing live, but her performance is as strong as you'd expect! Like you saw in 2019, videos from round #1 feature each performer's full song or routine, followed by judges' remarks. As it turns out, the first 12 performers were all just singers, and if they advanced to the round of 15, their name is in italics. In order, the first performer that night was Stan Fera (Burton Cummings' "Break It To Them Gently").

Afterwards is the first of five qualifiers who did not get an audition video from Wacky Wings, namely Xavier Pelletier LeBeouf (Celine Dion's "My Heart Will Go On"). Further performers include Dave Delair (Toby Keith's "Should've Been A Cowboy") Katherine Long (Miranda Lambert's "Mama's Broken Heart"), Deuteornomy Niegas (Jimmy Bondoc's "Let Me Be The One"), Andrea "Butterfly Singer" Dantzer (Aubrey Woods' "The Candy Man"), and Greg McLeod (Gordon Lightfoot's "If You Could Read My Mind"). Next is another performer unfilmed at the auditions, that being Elizabeth Budge (Adele's "Hello"), with Amanda Phillips up right after with another Adele song ("When We Were Young"). Tenth up was Sarah Vikken, and in a steep change from Tony Orlando at the auditions, she covered My Chemical Romance's "I'm Not Okay (I Promise)" for her round #1 song!

Definitely wasn't expecting a cover of the pop punk/emo stalwarts here, and while M.C.R. may not be the first thought for a vocal showcase at a talent competition, but Sarah is more than okay here (I promise!) Kudos to her for getting up there and letting loose like this, she could do more punk & alternative music if she wanted, and give it a look for yourself below!

Next in the first round was Ricky Roy (Slander ft. Dylan Matthew's "Love Is Gone"), but we'll stop for today with the last performer of the first half of the first round, namely Lori Vaidelis, who covered Guns  N' Roses' "Sweet Child O Mine". After doing Aerosmith in the auditions, this does give a sense as to her musical preference, and her distinctive Cyndi Lauper-esque voice is on full display here. Her asides to the crowd and apparent sense of humour seem to come so easily to her also, which is great to see. Has she thought about getting into a band? Unfortunately, I can't embed Lori's round #1 video here, as Facebook content-matched the karaoke cover of "Sweet Child O Mine" used here, but give it a look at the link above! It's not my place to in-depth critique every aspect of the performers when many aren't established musicians already, but Darren, Mike, and Valerie offer kind and constructive criticism of each at the end.

Of course, most round #1 performers would return the following week, so you know that there's a lot of talent on display, which is readily obvious when you watch these videos. Plus, this is just the first half of The Soo's Got Talent III, so check out the opening round so far linked above, and we'll be back with the second half next week! Thanks everyone!