FMU held its first showcase of three for its FMU’s Got Talent competition featuring dancers, singers and other performers on Oct. 5 in the Chapman Auditorium in the McNair Science Building (MSB).  

The 17 performers were competing for a $500 prize. Second place is set to receive a $250 prize, and third place will receive $100.  

The showcase was modeled after the TV show “America’s Got Talent.” After each student performed, the two judges, FMU alumna Tylic Galloway and current FMU senior Adrien McClintock, would give their critiques of the performance. Ultimately, however, the results of the competition were determined by the attendees.  

“It’s just like ‘America’s Got Talent,’ [the judges] may have the say in the moment, but the people pick,” Amanda Wagner, FMU’s Student Life specialist, said.  

The way that crowd voting took place was with a link through the Campus Activities Board’s (CAB) Instagram account, @fmu_cab. The link took the user to a Google Form where they would vote for their first, second and third favorite.  

On Oct. 6, the results were posted to CAB’s Instagram page. Five people were eliminated from the first showcase, leaving 12 competitors. For the finale, eight competitors will remain.  

Currently, the judges are set to remain the same for each showcase. McClintock was chosen for his skills as a musician. According to the hosts, McClintock plays many instruments such as guitar, bass, and piano.  

Galloway was also chosen for her musical background.  

“She’s got great musical talent,” Wagner said. “We picked her based on that because we have a majority of singers.” 

The showcase was hosted by Dashawna Black and Renesha Johnson, who were in charge of introducing the judges and each performer.  

One hour into the show, there was a ten-minute intermission that featured entertainment by Keith Breezy. He did a trivia-style challenge with volunteers from the audience, and the winners won FMU t-shirts.  

One of the performers, sophomore music major Tísha Wilson, was asked by Galloway for an encore. She sang “Tennessee Whiskey” by Chris Stapleton.  

“In the back of my head I was like, ‘no I do not want to sing another song, I just want to get off this stage,’ but I felt much more confident because no one was ever asked for an encore before, so I was like, ‘okay they actually really liked it,’” said Wilson. “It went much better than I thought it was going to go.”  

During Wilson’s performance, her boyfriend stood up from the audience so that she could focus on him instead of the crowd while she sang, which caused tears among the audience members.  

“When I saw everybody crying, that was really not the reaction I was ever thinking I was going to get,” Wilson said. “So, I know that I did move the crowd and I’ve never done anything like that.”  

The second showcase will take place on Oct. 13, and the finale will be on Oct. 27. Both will begin at 6 p.m. Initially, the first showcase was set to be on Sept. 29, but it was postponed for inclement weather. The schedule change led to three additional contestant dropouts.