TOGO — A Togo young woman, who last month graduated from high school in Kamsack, was an audience favourite at the final GX94 Star Search competition held July 9 during the Yorkton Summer Fair.
“It was super fun,” Kate Erhardt of Togo said last week. “I had lots of fun doing it.”
Although it was Zack Richards of Opaskwayak, Man., who topped the competition, organizers said Erhardt was an audience favourite and encouraged her to enter the competition again.
“I definitely want to do it again next year,” she said.
Other than having performed in a few musical productions while attending grades 5 and 6, Erhardt said she had not sung much until she decided to enter the GX94 Star Search contest about three months ago when she had submitted an on-line audition recording.
“I did it on a whim,” she said. “I always had it at the back of my head the desire to sing, although I didn’t know when, what or how.”
The on-line audition was good enough for her to qualify for the first round of preliminaries which, for her, was held in Norquay on June 3 when about eight contestants performed.
Erhardt sang Wilder Days by Morgan Wade and Little Dive Bar by Ashley McBride, and at the end of the show, she was told that she was selected to advance to one of the two semifinal contests. While eight singers performed in Rocanville, she and seven other singers went to Churchbridge on June 12, when she sang Burning House by Cam and Mary’s Song by Taylor Swift.
From each of the two semifinal contests, four singers, including Erhardt, were selected to advance to the finals.
Although in the preliminary rounds, Erhardt sang to music she found on the Internet, she said that for the finals, she had to sing with a live band.
The Yorkton Exhibition grandstand was almost full, she said of the final competition for which she sang Coal Miner’s Daughter by Loretta Lynn and The Climb by Miley Cyrus.
“I wasn’t as nervous as I thought I would be,” she said, adding that in the audience were several members of her family.
In addition to having had a lot of fun, and experience singing in front of a large audience, Erhardt was presented with a GX94 Star Search jacket.
With no immediate plans regarding a singing career, other than “definitely wanting to keep going,” Erhardt said she will be going to Saskatoon in August to begin studies at the University of Saskatchewan. She plans to obtain a bachelor’s degree in bio-medical science and then go on to pursue a doctorate in dentistry.
At her graduation at the Kamsack Comprehensive Institute last month, Erhardt received the Kamsack Dental General Proficiency Award of $200; the RM of Cote Award of $250; the Kamsack Legion Award of $500; a leadership award of $2,500, and the U of S $3,000 entrance scholarship.
In addition to Erhardt and Zack Richards, the other finalists in the Star Search competition were:
- Jesse Genaille of Swan River, Man;
- Cassandra Danyluk of Canora;
- Jessica Madsen of Theodore;
- Megan Kelly of Rocanville;
- Cassandra Tomolak of Esterhazy, and
- Kolby Clunas of Russell, Man.
