Talent search winner hits new career highs
Teen singer and 2017 champion looking forward to performing again in Calgary
In some ways, the pressure is off for 18-year-old singer Jada McKenzie-Moore when she returns to Calgary this Saturday.
The 18-year-old Vancouverbased singer will be back on stage at the Boyce Theatre, one year after her triumphant win at the Calgary Stampede Talent Search. McKenzie-Moore bested 11 competitors with a scorching version of The Jackson 5’s Who’s Lovin’ You in 2017. She will sing the song again on Saturday, along with others, as part of the Stampede’s tradition of having last year’s winner entertain the crowd while the judges deliberate on this year’s winner.
“It feels good,” said McKenzieMoore in an interview from her home in Vancouver. “It feels like the Stampede is like a little family now.”
Saturday’s finals will pit 12 new talents against each other, all vying for the grand prize of $10,000 and other goodies intended to help propel their career forward. This year, the total prize package is worth more than $20,000.
Nearly 300 hopefuls auditioned this year from around the country during the first weekend in May. That was whittled down to 60 performers who competed over five nights starting July 6. The top 24 were to compete starting Thursday night in the semifinals, while the top 12 face off on Saturday.
This year, the competitors have been an eclectic bunch, including singers, magicians, bands, solo dancers, dance groups, a contortionist and even an aerialist who performs on a hoop above the stage.
“We were really trying to expand on the diversity of the acts and promote that it is about talent in all its forms,” said Jessica Badzgon, chair of the Calgary Stampede Talent Search Committee.
The main thrust of the competition is to help young people who want to pursue performance as a career. In its 38-year existence, the search has certainly found its fair share of performers who have gone on to great success.
They include country superstar Paul Brandt, who took top prize in 1992. The 2007 champ, Michael Bernard Fitzgerald, has also enjoyed a busy career and was brought in as a last-minute replacement on the Coca-Cola Stage earlier this week when scheduled performer Daniel Caesar was held up by “transportation logistical issues.”
Pop sensation and Ellen DeGeneres favourite Kiesza was a past contestant. Up-and-coming Nashville-based country duo Leaving Thomas was formed when 2012 winner Annika Odegard and 2012 Don Weldon award-winner Bryton Udy met at the competition. The 2016 winner, singer-cellist Lizzy Munson, went on to perform with Cirque du Soleil at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas.
McKenzie-Moore, who was 17 when she won last year, has been concentrating on her education since the win, although she has continued to perform and recorded a debut single at Calgary’s OCL Studios with Juno-nominated producer Spencer Cheyne.
“Music is definitely the career path I’ve always gone down,” she said.
“Because I used to be a big competition kid, I think winning (the talent search) got me out of competition mode because it’s one of the biggest competitions in Canada. I feel like I’m at a new level with my music career.”
The finals of The Calgary Stampede Talent Search take place Saturday at the Boyce Theatre in Stampede Park. Doors open at 6 p.m.
We were really trying to expand on the diversity of the acts and promote that it is about talent in all its forms.