On a rainy Friday night just before reading break, a few hundred people packed the SFU theatre to watch SFU’s Got Talent, a talent competition organized by the Simon Fraser Student Society (SFSS).
The event had been two months in the works, and the 10 contestants who performed were cherry picked from over 60 performers who auditioned.
Thea Loo and Kellen Jackson, a duo who had never performed together before the event, stole the show, first with a jazzy acoustic cover of Britney Spears’ “Toxic,” then with a rousing rendition of Sia’s “Chandelier.”
They eventually took home the first place title, a cash prize of $1,000, and the chance to record their very own single with professional production with Compound Recordings.
“We were just excited to perform everything we prepared,” said the winning duo. Loo explained that the nerves before the final performance were intense. “To be honest, I was on the ground stretching my back because it hurts from the adrenaline.”
The scale of the event was much larger than in years before. Shery Alam, the sponsorship officer, said that there was a 300 to 400 per cent increase in ticket sales from the last SFU’s Got Talent.
The second-place winner was Kevin Liu, a first year business student, who impressed the judges with his dance moves. Said Kevin about his talent, “When I dance, I just get really happy. When I get into my own feel and do my own thing I can just do it for hours.”
Chanel Viner, one of the three local artists who served as judges for the event, said of the night, “I thought it was a great way for students at SFU to get together and share what they believe in, and what they’ve been working so hard for.”
The show was filled with spectacle and spontaneous moments, such as when host Ally Baharoon decided to dance and lip synch to disco classic “I Will Survive.”
Other highlights of the show included Jessie Tran, who wowed the crowd with a dance performance done in a cheetah onesie to songs like “Eye of the Tiger” and “Anaconda,” interspersed with audio clips from a nature documentary.
Tran won the fourth-place prize, and was invited along with the other top four contestants to perform at SFU’s Relay for Life.
After the show ended, many attendees moved to the Highland Pub for a lively afterparty, during which the winners were presented with their prizes.
Karan Thukral, the logistics officer, was pleased with how the show went. “I see this as the beginning of appreciation of talent at SFU,” he said. “This will be a strong foundation for building community at SFU.”
