Smitty's Pop Idol Karaoke competition

By Michelle Rhodes.

Vegas and Liss brown managed a smooth-running Pop idol karaoke competition final. Liss looks after sound and lighting and order of contestants’ music tracks. Vegas compères, keeps the flow and engages the audience and is a very professional musician on stage performing when he is not compèring. Smitty’s was very crowded with people and goodwill for the entire evening. This is an annual event and people love karaoke and they love to support their particular favourite entrant for the final. There were ten entrants as a result of three weekly sessions of judging.

The winner was Jai Prangnell, who works at The Lost Spring, Whitianga. She was very professional, and her voice and presentation shone like a bright star. The first-place prize money is $1,000, a very generous gift from Fleur and Paul Clayton of Smitty’s.

The remaining prize money of $700 is shared by Second and third place getters/ an extra $300 was added with an equal for third place. A mark of the evening which was not present before was the participation and enthusiasm of the Filipino community. They exuded talent and joy and contributed greatly to the crowd volume. Thank you.

There is a strong connection between the open mic Nights at Monkey House theatre and the level of participation in the Karaoke competition - people learn confidence and get experience at The Monkey House as well as at the regular Thursday night karaoke sessions at Smitty’s.

“Contestants and their supporters from the Philippines, Māori and the international mixture that is Whitianga.

Me, I’ve got English Scottish Welsh (the land of song) and Italian going on in my history. They came together for the love of music and in shared voices singing along together.

Thank you Smitty’s it was a beautiful night…..nurturing our multi-cultural community. “