Beech Bend Park’s Superstar: Whitaker tops at Superstar’s Week 2
Published 12:00 am Wednesday, June 16, 2010
The second week of competition at Beech Bend bend park took place Saturday, with a familiar face advancing to the contest’s September finale.
Morgantown, KY native Kyle Whitaker sang a rendition of “East to West” by the group Casting Crowns to earn top honors in the most recent battle of aspiring singers. Whitaker will return in September along with each of the twelve weekly winners for a final performance to determine the park’s champion for 2010.
Judges for the second week of competition included EMI America A&R executive Jarrett Dyson, WLOC morning radio host Lori Houchens, and gospel singer Jeff Sneed in addition to Executive Director of the Bowling Green Area Convention and Visitors Bureau, Vicki Fitch.
Superstar is a singing competition launched by the park as an experiment in 2009. Due to overwhelmingly positive feedback from contestants and spectators alike, the park extended the show for an additional season, much to the delight of the show’s co-producer and host, radio personality David Gary.
“We wanted to create an avenue for undiscovered talent at the park, because we knew there was so much talent in this region that simply needed an opportunity to be recognized” said Gary, who along with Beech Bend’s Sherry Harper, scour the internet and regional talent competitions to book some of the area’s most talented, yet undiscovered singers.
The show, loosely based on the same format as popular television shows American Idol, America’s Got Talent, and Nashville Star pits up to twelve weekly contestants against each other in front of an interactive panel of judges, who also score the performers on multiple criteria. Weekly winners are invited back to the park to compete one additional time for the top honor of Beech Bend “Superstar” 2010, in addition to a long list of prizes provided by the show’s sponsors.
Whitaker, who was the show’s runner up last season, has found his own success after the competition ended in 2009. In addition to an opportunity to compete on the CMT television show “The Singing Bee”, Whitaker has been booked to perform at a number of events and has aspirations to record a debut release sometime this year.
“It is unbelievable what the people at Beech Bend have done for me.” said Whitaker during a performance at the park. “This has been a great experience for me, and has given me opportunities I might have never have had a chance to enjoy.”
Beech Bend has scheduled weekly auditions on Saturdays for the remainder of the park’s season and encourages any individual who would like to compete to visit the park’s website ( http://www.beechbend.com ) for more information on how to register for the show.
