Campus Superstar searches for vocal talent at Pitt

Campus Superstar Auditions Nov. 11 7:00-9:00 p.m. WPU Assembly Room

Do you sing in… Campus Superstar Auditions Nov. 11 7:00-9:00 p.m. WPU Assembly Room

Do you sing in the shower? The young men and women that will audition for the chance to become this year’s Campus Superstar would most likely answer yes to this question.

Hillel Jewish University Center of Pittsburgh will be managing, for the second year in a row, the American Idol of local colleges, also known as Campus Superstar. The event spans from November to April because it is based on a series of rounds. The first round, held on Sunday, is the basic audition, which is free to enter and open to anyone ready to sing.

These preliminaries will be the first step in narrowing down the group of performers, and then the semi-finals will decide who goes to the final event. This competition may seem like a silly race for the best Christina Aguilera imitation, but its fresh background and the amount of effort the community has committed makes the event somewhat of a big-to-do in Pittsburgh.

Linda Myers, associate director of Hillel JUC, has played a major role in making Superstar happen and in getting the word out to college students. Campus Superstar actually started on campuses in Georgia, but its success and hype began spreading to other schools throughout the years. In association with Hillel, Myers picked up the idea and ran with it – all over Pittsburgh’s campuses to be honest.

“We thought that it would be neat to bring it to Pittsburgh,” she said. “There’s a lot of talent in this city.” She hopes to reel in this talent from a variety of schools.

“There is a postcard in every Pitt and CMU mailbox. We have a Facebook group and hundreds of flyers. We have also e-mailed every college within a two-hour driving radius,” Myers explained.

According to Myers, the competition will not be an easy slide. The contestants will be asked to sing 16 to 32 bars a cappella, and this simple performance will be the basis of the judges’ selections for the semi-finals.

The organization is expecting a good turnout. Rebecca Lehner, a sophomore at Pitt and the lead development intern for the event, has recently been working hard..

“We’ve been going to each campus and flyering to get the hype up,” Lehner said. “We’re hoping to get about 150 people to audition.”

Outside of the advertising and flyers that are being passed around, Campus Superstar is becoming popular just based on its winning prize value and its success from last year. The winner will receive a $5,000 scholarship and the 2nd and 3rd place winners will each get a $1,000 scholarship. Such large and welcomed prizes will make the hungry competition even hungrier.

Last year’s Campus Superstar event was one to remember. The finals were held at Pittsburgh’s renowned Carnegie Music Hall, as they will be again this year. Finalists had the chance to take the stage where countless famous singers and artists have stood in the past. The event even included a performance by a nationally known star, Elliot Yamin, who happened to be a 3rd place finalist on the hit show American Idol.

The finals will not be as starry-eyed this year, but they will be no less memorable. Nick Cosgrove, last year’s grand prize winner and current sophomore at CMU, will be doing a solo performance at the show. The organization is also hoping to get together other finalists to do special performances for the sole purpose of entertainment outside of the competition.

Emily Simpson, a Pitt junior and last year’s 2nd runner up, has nothing but good things to say about Campus Superstar’s first event. “It was really cool – I got to meet Elliot Yamin and I got the chance to compete against a lot of people I did not know,” she said. Simpson noticed that there was an almost equal gender ratio in the finals, which always makes for a more interesting competition.

“It was probably one of my favorite experiences performing so far – I got to do things I would not normally get to do on campus,” she said.

The competition this year will be similarly based on outstanding talent, but Hillel is hoping to make the whole process more community oriented. According to Rebecca Lehner, her main job has been “getting corporate sponsorship and helping raise funds from the community.” The organization wants to promote more awareness about the finals to be held in April. “We’re hoping to get more publicity from the media,” said Lehner.

No matter how much interest the surrounding area shows, Hillel and its leading representative for Campus Superstar are ready to be fully active in the competition up until the winner’s name is announced. Myers is not biased about the winner’s associated school, but she did have some words of encouragement for Pitt.

“At the final event, it’s the audience’s vote,” Myers noted, “so the more Pitt students that show, the better chance that a student from Pitt will take home the prize.”