Junior Maddy Caiola was named the 2016 Terrace Idol winner after the final round took place tonight in the theater. Previous to her win tonight, Caiola won the fan vote (now called “People’s Champion”) in the 2014 competition. This year’s People’s Champion award recipient was senior Kyle Llarenas.
After the initial 20 contestants, Terrace Idol came down to five for the final round. The contestants all went head to head in this last competition for the title of Terrace Idol winner.
From MTHS, the final contestents were Llarenas, Caiola, freshman Rackeb Kelemu and senior Kyle Henderson. The lone Edmonds Woodway High School contestant was Rodney Ocfemia.
The three judges were the same ones for the last two rounds, those being Kevin Douglass, Meg Stecker-Thorsen and Susan Dolacky, all of whom have extensive background in music and years of experience in music.
The one change for this final round of Terrace Idol was that each contestant was to sing two songs instead of just one. This was different from previous rounds as well as the final round of previous Terrace Idol competitions.
The first contestant up was sophomore Rodney Ocfemia from EWHS, who sang “Just the Way You Are” by Bruno Mars and was accompanied by his friend on acoustic guitar. His second performance included the accompaniment of the box drum and himself on guitar. Ocfemia sang “Drag Me Down” by One Direction and kept a smooth beat with the up tempo song.
Senior Kyle Llarenas sang “Hotline Bling” by Drake for the first half of the night and as always, was a crowd pleaser. His second performance was a special debut of a new song that he wrote himself, “So Good.” The part of this performance that got the audience going the most was when he threw money into the air, possibly alluding to his stage name, “K-Money.”
Junior Maddy Caiola decided to sing “Let it Go” by James Bay while being accompanied by LHS graduate Dan Goltapeh, commonly known as “Bonfire Dan.” Her second song was “Domino” by Katy Perry. Both were solid performances, showcasing Caiola’s ability to put together very full performances, involving both movement and good singing.
“There’s a sparkle; there was smile, energy and you just could see that she enjoyed what she was doing, and was doing it well,” Dolacky said.
Freshman Rackeb Kelemu sang “I’d Rather Go Blind” by Beyoncé for her first song and “Dance with my Father” by Luther Vandross for her second.
Senior Kyle Henderson sang more songs that utilized his drama background, such as “Something’s Coming” from the musical West Side Story. His second song, “Extraordinary” was from Pippin, another musical. This song involved a wardrobe change and afterward, to the delight of the entire audience, Terrace Idol host and senior Kimi Fenn asked Henderson to the upcoming Tolo dance. Henderson gladly accepted.
After the musical performances, the audience received a purely dance one thanks to Kontagious Performing Company. The dance group provided entertainment during the period after the performances while the judges were tabulating the scores, and performed exceptionally.
With all the votes and scores in, it was time to announce the Terrace Idol 2016 winners. All five contestants were brought on stage after the judges and senior class ASB were thanked for their roles. Llarenas was announced to be the People’s Champion and Caiola as the Terrace Idol winner.
Caiola still stayed humble after the win.
“It feels pretty great; freshman year I won audience choice and that was pretty cool, but when you win audience choice you can do it again,” Caiola said. “When you win judges’ choice you can’t do it again so I guess I’m kind of bummed that I can’t do it again, but I’m also pretty excited that I won; [it’s] a pretty good feeling.”
