Singers, a magician, a comedian, and a guitarist took part in a talent show in Cwmbran.
Ten acts entertained the audience at the White Hut Community Hall on Friday evening. Cwmbran Life was one of the four judges and choosing the winner, second and third was a tough job. It was such a success that the three acts, Ciara Hall (first), Melissa Carter (second) and Mark Robert (third) have agreed to do a showcase night on Friday 10 November so get this date in your diary now and look out for tickets on sale soon!
Mikka Todd- singer
She opened the show with a powerful performance of Burn from Hamilton. In July, Mikka played Ronnette in Cwmbran High School’s performance of Little Shop of Horrors. It was a fantastic start to the night and Gemma Webster, a fellow judge, summed our feelings when she told her “you made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up”.
Melissa Carter- singer: SECOND PLACE
Mellisa was our runner-up in second place. Her presence on stage and beautiful voice caught us all in a trance. Luke Simmonds, a judge, had his young son ,Oren, with him and told Melissa: “I’ve never known my son to be this quiet for that long.” She performed Billie Eilish’s What Was I Made For?
Watch her post-show performance here:
Dan Morris- magician
Magician Dan Morris had the tricky (no pun intended) job of doing close-up magic to a large audience. Alison Black, a judge, asked people to come forward around the judges’ table where he did his act. His magical mix of card tricks and mind-reading feats left us all scratching our heads.
Sarah Kingston- Singer
Sarah is a new mum of twins and Daniel and Ivy were the youngest members of the audience. The brother and sister were born last December so may not remember seeing their mum on stage but they should feel proud when they’re old enough to read this. She was a fab and banged out Someone by You by Adele to loud cheers.
Amy-Jayne Brown- Singer
Amy-Jayne looked so happy on stage singing So Much Better from Legally Blonde. In my review of Cwmbran High School’s Little Shop of Horrors I wrote this about her: “No spoilers, but Orin’s (Amy-Jayne Brown) final song while taking in laughing gas, well it had me laughing and summed up this lovely tongue-in-cheek comedy.” Again she brought something extra to her performance which made us grin and cheer at the same time.
Mark Roberts- guitarist: THIRD PLACE
Host Daniel Baribeault asked every act to tell them what they were about to do. Mark talked about his tough life and what music meant to him. I was gripped. He wowed us with his voice, guitar and mouth organ skills. He combined the three into a fabulous performance of Bette Midler’s The Rose. Mark came third in the show.
Ethan Griffiths- singer
Eleven-year-old Ethan was the youngest entrant. He gripped the microphone with two hands throughout A Thousand Years by Christina Perri. Fellow judge Gemma rightly told him “you smashed it.” Ethan pulled at our heartstrings after I asked him why and how he started singing. He told us it was because his “mum has a good voice.” This could be a duet in the next talent show?
Ciara Hall- singer: FIRST PLACE
The show’s winner told us it was her first time on stage. Incredible. The 16-year-old put everything into Adele’s When We Were Young. Fellow judge Luke told her she had a “phenomenal talent”. After the results were announced, she sang again and you can watch it here.
Dylan Williams and Mia Jenkins- Duet
This talented duet took on the lead roles in Cwmbran High School’s recent production of Little Shop of Horrors. I thought it was brilliant that they were great friends and wanted to get back on stage to pair up for Suddenly Seymour in this talent show. It was a fun-filled song that I’m sure these two will be singing together for a long time because of the great memories it gives them.
Paul Carpenter- comedian
Judge Gemma told a few earlier acts that her eyes had misted up from their wonderful voices. Ten minutes of listening to Paul, I was wiping my eyes for a different reason. No spoilers but his punchlines of “my incubator had tinted glass” and the reason why fellow judge Ali (my wife), was named that by her mum (yes, my mother in law) had me howling. I’ll never be able to look at my mother-in-law Maureen the same way again. Okay, one spoiler from his act “Do you know where the worst place to play ‘hide and seek’ is in a hospital? The ICU.” Brilliant!
Post-show fun
After the results, a few of the acts sang again on stage. This is Amy-Jayne, Mikka and Mia.
The host
Daniel was the MC and had the job of keeping everything on track throughout the night. His smart suit and even smarter one-liners were spot on. But his best role was making sure every contestant was calm, relaxed and in the right space to give their best peformance.
The ten acts
Ciara gets her award
