Let's take some time today on the SMS to finally go over the semifinal results of the fifth annual The Soo's Got Talent, which went down on Friday at Soo Blaster! All twelve semifinalists competed by way of two songs that night, and judges sent through seven (not six) performers to the finals on Friday, November 22nd, those being singers Demoy MacSamuels, Robert Nevitt, Kristina Sagrak, and Chloe Tessier, alongside singer/guitarists Celeste Burton, Nicolette Rebello, and Madii Schomogyi. Eliminated on Friday were singer/guitarists Jennifer Joseph and Arin Karki, plus singers Haley Alopaeus, Rebekah Moran, and Ricky Roy. The results were announced for social media in the Facebook video embedded below by judges Darren Robertson and Mario Naccarato, where they complimented the performances but also acknowledged a scoring discrepancy that initially kept Robert out of the final six.
No word on the teased audience save, though Chloe was acknowledged by Darren as being the audience favourite. It is good that the judges caught their error with their tallies, and that no one was eliminated by way of that! Darren also hinted at a change in how the finals would have been formatted as a result of adding a seventh finalist, but given how he described the plans for next Friday, it doesn't sound dissimilar to last year's finals. In any event, give the announcement video a watch below!
While videos from round 2 were never posted to the T.S.G.T. Facebook page for unannounced reasons, they did post footage of all twelve semifinalists there this week, with three videos being uploaded featuring four performers apiece. We only get minute-or-so-long clips of one song each, but it's better than nothing! Note that Celeste & Arin are the only semifinalists who were filmed playing guitar here, though I can't vouch for everyone's unfilmed second song. Video #1 features Celeste doing an apparent original song, Rebekah singing Anais Mitchell & Ani DiFranco's "Our Lady Of The Underground", Chloe covering Dolly Parton's "Jolene", and Jennifer covering Irene Cara's "Flashdance... What A Feeling". I would have embedded video #2 here, but unfortunately, Robert and/or Nicolette's backing track was content matched by Facebook, so it's unembeddable on external websites. Click here to check it out!
There, you'll see Robert covering Bon Jovi's "Wanted Dead Or Alive", Nicolette covering Alannah Myles' "Black Velvet", and Demoy & Madii both singing apparent originals. Robert has a good handle on the classic Bon Jovi power ballad, and I'm
glad to see that a judges' tallying error didn't send him home early!
Nicolette did a good job with "Black Velvet" too, if a somewhat
overplayed song (it being Cancon is acknowledged), and it's good to see
another finalist doing a heavier song! There's clear talent across the
board here, including songwriting talent for Demoy & Madii, so don't bypass it! We can embed video #3 here though, which features Kristina singing a possible original (maybe titled "Watch Yourself, Girl"?), Haley covering Demi Lovato's "Anyone", Ricky covering Greta Van Fleet's "Highway Tune", and Arin playing an original. Note that only Kristina advanced out of this group.
If it was up to me, I'd have balanced the semifinal videos better for Facebook, especially as everyone in video #2 advanced. Regardless, there are good performances here, though I will admit that I don't think Ricky picked a great song for his vocal range (the author's dislike for Greta Van Fleet is acknowledged, eventhough it's a hard rock cover). Check out the last four semifinal clips for yourself below!
The finals go down next Friday at 6:30 PM, with Celeste, Demoy, Robert, Nicolette, Kristina, Madii, and Chloe going head to head for the top prize! Demoy is the only returning finalist from last year, whereas Kristina finally made the finals of The Soo's Got Talent after being knocked out in the 2023 semifinals despite getting a golden buzzer last year. Can Demoy improve on last year's success and match his Shooters Talent Quest victory? This year's only golden buzzer went to Chloe, but will that be an omen of a solid finish next week? Madii was a finalist in 2018's inaugural T.S.G.T., but can she finally win it all in 2024? She has covered hard rock songs with her local cover band Lime, so will that bode well for the song with Mike Haggith's band, let alone Nicolette's Alannah Myles cover? Celeste has reliably played guitar throughout this year's competition, but will Nicolette & Madii break theirs out again?
And of course, fans of 2018-2022 power rock/classic metal band Re:Born will want to pay attention next Friday, as Robert was that band's original singer. Not only is his old bandmate Brandan Glew drumming for The Big Finish Band, but his replacement (2023 runner-up Elly McWatters) is now their rhythm guitarist, so we'll get a mini-reunion of sorts at Soo Blaster! We'll have more on the finals next week in that round of weekend concert previews, and we'll discuss Mike's halftime set in the near future as well, but visit the above links for more on all that went down at T.S.G.T. V on Friday night! Thanks everyone!
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