By Matthew Merino
The contestants were nervous, the music was booming, and the audience was cheering. Every emotion from melancholy to euphoria filled the room thanks to the invigorating performances of multiple talented Peace students. These students were all contributing to this year’s “WPU’s Got Talent”.
Happening on Feb. 26 in Kenan Hall, this show displayed a myriad of performances that wowed the audience. To kick the talent show off, Oferle, a trio pop band from Fort Wayne Indiana, played some of their most popular songs, including their single “Nights Like These”.
After Oferle set the mood of the show, what followed were the main performances from WPU’s very own students. These performances varied from singing, to spoken word poetry, and even to drumming.
Throughout the course of the show, multiple judges scattered throughout the audience were diligently scoring each performance in order to determine the winner. These scores were then counted up at the very end of the show to determine each performer’s place.
During the time in which the judges convened to determine the talent show’s winners, Oferle came back onto the stage to deliver more memorable moments with the audience.
Quentin Germain, a Peace student studying simulation and game design, was among these audience members and expressed his satisfaction with the show.
“I really hope that they do stuff like this again, it was really fun,” Germain said. “Oferle was especially cool to listen to.”
During this portion of the show, Annette Offerle, the lead singer of the band, mentioned how the band was humbled to be on stage at Peace, and that this experience was reminiscent of how they got their start at talent shows.
Following the additional songs played by Oferle, the talent show’s top three contestants were announced. Taking third place was Jordan Sample with her chilling spoken word performance. Coming in at second place was Taylor Blanchard with her singing performance. At first place, Jordan Mims delivered a song he created, accompanying his lyrics with his guitar playing.
Mims was able to deliver some insight into his creative process and what he did to prepare for the talent show.
“I had this poem for about the past two weeks that I was planning on turning into a song, and I found an instrumental, but it didn’t necessarily fit the vibe that I wanted. So I decided to get my guitar and basically just strum it out.”
The nerves among each contestant were certainly high, and Mims was able to attest to this.
“I was sitting here and I was like, ‘are a lot of people gonna show up?’, because sometimes that makes me nervous…but when I got here it was pretty moderate, and it kind of felt like home. But even then, when I got on stage I still felt nervous.”
These nerves are often what can excite an individual enough to participate in a talent show, however, they can also cause an individual to avoid going up on stage. Mims had some advice for students who may feel apprehensive to show their talent off on stage in front of their peers.
“Just know it’s gonna be way easier on stage,” Mims said. “A lot of times, it’s really just our own selves that we have to step out of, and recognize that we deserve our best life. That’s really it. We deserve the best of us. The crowd is only a mirror. It may look like a lot of people, but it’s really just you.”
Kenan Hall where WPU’s Got Talent took place