“I hated almost every performance, and I think this is the last time Taylor Idol will ever be hosted,” Bryce Swift, senior management major, said while playing the role of a stereotypical harsh critic for Taylor Idol.
Swift faked disgust for the show, playing the role of a Simon-Cowell-esque judge. In reality, he said he loved Taylor Idol’s performances.
Taylor Idol, a singing competition between seven performers that took place on Friday, Feb. 27, packed the Butz-Carruth Recital Hall with about 150 audience members. Created for a class project by Taylor students, the contest’s judges evaluated the singers’ performances, though the audience determined the winner by voting. After three competitive rounds, freshman film and media major Jordan Bewley received first place, winning $100 in prize money after his performance of Michael Buble’s “Feeling Good.”
Other competitors included Hayden McDonald, Hobie Raikers, Liv Hensley, Ethan Kleinman, Austin Cooper and Ellie Schaufelberger. They sang a variety of songs ranging from Zach Bryan’s “Something in the Orange” to John Legend’s “All of Me.”
Swift, responsible for meeting each act with skepticism, shook his head as his co-judges applauded each act. Swift said he engaged the audience by pretending to despise the performances. His comments spanned from complaining about the singer’s lack of talent to comparing their voice to a car alarm.
“It’s not easy to be a jerk like that,” he said.
Taylor Idol was part of a crash-and-burn project for Professor Mick Bates’s new venture planning class, he said.
Swift worked on a team with Matt Faulks, Ethan Kleinman, Kyler Vander Kolk and Dakohta Sonnichsen. They were given one and a half weeks to make $750 with $40.
Swift’s group made about $700 by charging a small admission fee for Taylor Idol. They donated 10% of proceeds to an organization in Indianapolis helping trafficked women, he said. Swift enjoyed planning Taylor Idol with the rest of his group, especially knowing where the money would go.
“It felt good, it was fun, it was a good atmosphere, it was a great time,” he said.
While he loved it, the stress of planning the event gave him a new appreciation for people who coordinate events. He’s in awe of the chapel coordinators, he said.
Swift said he didn’t realize they’d be planning, sound-checking, reserving buildings, emailing and walking through technology on top of more obvious planning steps.
Additionally, Swift dealt with stress after realizing only three performers had signed up the day before the performance. He said he was thankful when four people signed up last minute the day of the competition.
Swift said he would love holding Taylor Idol in future years, despite complications and stress. However, he said if he were to hold the competition again, he would give judges a larger role in determining the winner.
Swift said many people cheated when they cast their ballots for the winner. In the 150-person audience, more than 150 votes were cast.
“We're checking the live votes, and there's 270 votes,” Swift said. “I'm like, that's not adding up. There's not 270 people.”
Hall was thrilled that 150 people showed up; he’d previously expected about 75.
Austin Cooper, a marketing sophomore who sang “Shallows” by Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga for Taylor Idol, was also surprised by the large crowd. For his performance, Cooper sang Lady Gaga’s part in high-pitched falsetto, literally sweeping the judges’ papers off of the table as he laid on furniture and flapped his arms.
“I was like, ‘Oh, this is gonna be a small thing, so I can act like an idiot,’” Cooper said. “And then I was like, ‘Well, there's actually a lot of people here,’ but I still decided to act like an idiot.”
Cooper signed up for Taylor Idol to help Vander Kolk and Swift after they voiced concerns about not having enough competitors.
He said he wasn’t nervous before the performance, and didn’t think his performance would matter. However, he said he enjoyed the night and had fun, despite not winning first place.
Cooper said that if he had won the prize money, he would’ve either saved it for a spring break trip or treated his entire hall to a Lady Gaga concert.
He wasn’t the only performer at Taylor Idol who had fun.
Freshman Liv Hensley, an elementary education major, sang “Beautiful, Beautiful” by Francesca Battistelli for Taylor Idol. She enjoyed the experience, despite experiencing initial anxiety about the large crowd.
Hensley competed in Taylor Idol to ease herself into performing at Taylor and meet people around campus, she said. She said the event boosted her confidence. She considers auditioning for Taylor productions or joining one of the university’s choirs in the future.
Hensley, like many others, was grateful for the night of fun Swift, Vander Kolk, Kleinman, Faulks and Sonnichsen provided.
“Overall, it was really fun. Everybody was super nice,” she said. “It was a really good experience. I was just glad to be part of it.”
