JTHS Senior Emily Voorhees is Jefferson's New Idol

Emily Voorhees was crowned the new Jefferson Idol last Friday night, in a very close imitation to the popular reality singing competition American Idol. Several Jefferson students performed, starting with 10 finalists, narrowing that number down to five by teacher vote, and then using audience vote to crown the winner.

This year's competition sported a Motown theme. Emcees Meg Murray, a junior, and Tom Puglisi, a senior, wound the audience up and got them ready for a fun event before introducing each contestant.

The evening began with junior Austin DiBernard singing "Let's Get it On," the Marvin Gaye classic. Sophomore Julia O'Shea followed up with Aretha Franklin's "Chain of Fools." Next came sophomore  Hailey James singing the Supremes' "Ain't No Mountain High Enough." 

Senior Dan Malloy gave the crowd the Four Tops' "Sugar Pie Honey Bunch," followed by senior Meghan Cuddy's version of Diana Ross' "You Can't Hurry Love."

Senior Frank Malzone took on Michael Jackson's "I'll Be There," followed by junior Isaac Sterling singing "Ain't Too Proud to Beg."

It was then Voorhees' turn, and she chose the Ike and Tina Turner classic "River Deep Mountain High." Senior Sarah Benjamin pranced around to the Jackson 5's "I Want You Back," and freshman Renee Lopez finished the first round with her rendition of Diana Ross' "You Keep Me Hanging On."

All performers used the same band, which included chorus teacher Jim Wynn on keyboards; his son Jim Wynn Jr. on drums, Matt Abelson on guitar, John Evers on bass, Andrew Douris and Peter Froitzheim on sax, and Chris Crecco on trombone.

The judges, including biology teacher Chris Hiben, Spanish teacher Oscar Benavides, chemistry teacher Kathy Kula and school security monitor Frank McBride, commented on each of the the ten performances, offering advice, suggestions and encouragement.

The five finalists included James, who chose "Hurt" by Christina Aguilera; Sterling, who sang Stevie Wonder's "For Once in My Life;" Voorhees, who chose "Unwritten" by Natsha Bedingfield; Benjamin, who took on KT Tunstall's "Black Horse and a Cherry Tree" and O'Shea, who sang "1000 Miles" by Vanessa Carlton.

The audience was invited to use their ticket stub to write down the name of their favorite and place it into the appropriate bucket in the cafeteria. While the votes were being tallied, alternate Jenna Jones sang her Motown choice, "Signed Sealed Delivered," and Malloy came back to perform Queen's "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" on acoustic guitar, being backed by the full band. 

O'Shea was the fifth runner-up, James was fourth, Sterling was second, Benjamin was the first runner-up and the Voorhees was announced the winner. She performed an encore of "River Deep Mountain High."

According to Wynn, the event was run by the choir classes, and started with 40 students who participated in preliminary auditions. That number was then narrowed down to the 10 who competed plus one alternate.

Wynn also recognized seniors Ryan Cantwell and Mike Russo, sophomore Vincent Karaitis, and junior Mark Profaca, who handled sound, and senior D.J. Boyle, who handled lights for the evening.