Posted on October 3, 2008 at 9:34 am
The whole thing was just a lark, a little goofy thing to do on an afternoon in July when I didn’t want to write a football song (that I eventually wrote and that eventually got cut, making the whole thing an exercise in superfluousness), and then all of a sudden there were over two hundred entries – and even more that came in after the deadline – and then literally thousands of votes and every time I checked my email someone was yelling at me “Who won the contest? Who won the contest?” and I’m trying to WRITE A BROADWAY SHOW and record an ORIGINAL CAST ALBUM and tabulate the votes and listen to the entries, and it all got way way way out of hand, people, and I’m sorry it’s taken me so long, but Holy Hannah, here she blows: The Official Winners of the 2008 JRB Karaoke Contest! Click below and meet your 2008 JRB Karaoke Freaks!
(Talk about your lack of diversity. Not only are they all white people, they all have the same first names.)
And you can hear all of the winners sing live and in person on October 13, when they’ll be sharing the stage with me and the Legendary Caucasian Rhythm Kings at Birdland!
There were a lot of amazing performances, and I hope to write another entry next week pointing you to some of the particularly special ones. In the meantime, Kevin Ireland over at BestArts.com has done a really nice job compiling some highlights; check out his page right here.
I can’t thank all of you enough for participating; it was a lot of fun for a couple of weeks in August watching my pageviews go up and up and up! And I was so honored by the respect you all showed towards the songs, and the enormous talent you all brought to bear on my music. I am a very lucky boy.
So come see the Natalies, the Jonathans, and the Caucasian Rhythm Kings on October 13 at 7 pm! And support all of the amazing performers who were a part of the 2008 JRB Karaoke Contest!
And get ready for 2009!
29 comments
Awesome picks for your contest!! Not to throw stones but I definitely think Dan Banion blew Mr Gealt out of the water…but I’m just a commentator – congrats to everyone!!
Yay for Jonathan Shew and Nat Weiss!
Two amazing people right there 🙂
Jason,
Thanks for the nice website plug – and congratulations winners. I’ve updated theBestArts.com with the winning entries and links to more from the contestants.
All the best,
Kevin
Come on. You were the one who said the results would be back in a week. You have the hopes and dreams of all these kids on your hands. Get over yourself already.
Great singers, all of them.
I am so happy for Natalie Hawkins. She deserves it and she will make it.
Congrats to all of the winners! You all sound amazing! Break a leg at Birland!
P.S. Jason, if anyone minded waiting for the results they are crazy. We all know that you are in the midst of opening a Broadway show. Congrats and thanks for taking to time to do the contest.
I’m sorry, but all these people are in the business already. It’s a real let down.
Not that these people didn’t deserve to win (because they are amazing!) BUT, it would have been nice if the winners were based TOTALLY on talent and not on how many Youtube subscribers the person had. I got lots of hits on my video but there was no way most of us could really compete with the Youtube-a-hol-ics.
I completely agree with the comment above. . . though they are all very talented, these people are considered YouTube “Stars” and it would have been nice to somehow see those who don’t already have a huge following get the chance for exposure. But there was really no chance for anyone else to compete. (In fact we all predicted who was going to win based upon these things.) I am a little bit disappointed.
[FROM JRB: Hey, Kat, I understand that you’re disappointed, but I just have to say I didn’t know ANY of these kids before this contest; Gealt auditioned for me once a couple of years ago, and outside of that, I don’t think I’ve even met any of the other ones. So while they may be YouTube stars in some alternate universe, really, they’re just the same as everyone else who auditioned: very talented young performers. There were, in fact, lots of people who submitted that I do know personally, friends and acquaintances, some going back thirty years. The ones I chose were the ones who got the most votes that I thought were the most talented. I’m immensely proud of all of them, and can’t wait to sing with them next week. And I’m even more excited to meet more fantastic young singers in the next round of the contest!]
Well, one of the Jonathan’s isn’t “already in the business.” He’s still in college, and doesn’t even have that many YouTube views.
Congrats everyone, and I’ll see you Monday!
Congratulations, Natalie Hawkins. Finally, somebody from Broadway has discovered you. I hope this is just the beginning of a long career in the business.
Clearly, the winners are very talented singers. However, I agree with those who already commented about the fact that these people are already pretty well-known anyway. Would have been nice to recognize some TRUE new talent. Plus, Jonathan Shew posted on his MySpace that he had talked to Jason prior to announcing the winners exposing the actual FACT that he and his parents are personal friends of Jason and the family. That’s a little disheartening to me… Guess it really is all about who ya know.. or who your parents are.
[FROM JRB: Katie, that’s not fair. I worked with Jonathan’s dad once, for a week, twelve years ago, and have never seen him again; and I’ve never met Jonathan in my entire life. Besides which, Jonathan simply got more votes than any other boy in the whole contest. I didn’t have anything to do with that, and neither did anyone in my family. That was YOU, or whoever voted. And if you didn’t vote, you don’t get to complain.]
You planning on doing this again with other songs? I found out about it a little too late and would’ve loved to join….
WAY TO GO, Jonathan Reid Gealt!
Woohoo!
I just wanted to say Congratulations to the winners! I personally subscribe to Natalie Hawkins’s page, and even though I was a contestant, I was also rooting for her! She is a HUGE talent. Jason, thank you for allowing us to sing your wonderful songs “with” you! The experience alone was awesome =).
Jason,
Great contest – I hope to enter next time! Can you believe all of the “haters” out there? Oh well – I guess you get the bad with the good. Can’t wait to see you at Birdland. BTW, my wife and I loved 13!
Congrats to the winners – I am sure you all will have an epic time this coming Monday.
How much are tix? I might be in the city this weekend/Monday.
In response to your comment, Katie Y, Jonathan Shew doesn’t even have a myspace. And secondly, his parents aren’t “personal friends” with JRB at all! Where do you get your made up information?
Wow. I met Jonathan Shew’s father about two years ago when he worked with us on a musical, and only recently have been blessed to discovery his son’s “web gems” as it were through a few SCA connections. The submitted audio doesn’t do him enough justice! Best of luck to all of the winners.
Wow, everyone is a little steamed on here! I just wanted to say congratulations to my buddies Nat-dawg and Jonathan Gealt! And also thank you to Kevin Ireland for all his amazing BestArts work. And thank you SO much to JRB for giving us all a little fun competition this summer! (And oh yeah, for just being generally amazingly awesome in everything having to do with everything…) This contest was GREAT fun!
[FROM JRB: You’re welcome, Shelly! And everyone should definitely go listen to your entries, which are wicked cool!]
Hey Jason,
I didn’t mean to imply that you did something wrong at all. I think you ran a fair contest, and I guess we all just wish things worked out differently sometimes. I think it was awesome that you even held such a contest, and I am really excited for the people who won. And I’m glad to hear that you plan on holding the contest again, giving more people a chance for exposure! Have an amazing show with these awesome peeps!
PS- I also think you are rad for responding to people who post on your blog.
Jason,
This was so much fun, thanks for sharing your work with all of us! Great to see the winners, all extremely talented people of course. Best of luck with ’13’ and all your other endeavors, I feel extremely fortunate to be living during such an exciting time in theatre when someone of your incredible ability is putting out new shows. Thank you.
-Jeff
Good job, you guys! Break a leg tomorrow, you will all be fabulous.
I had fun doing this, thank you JRB.
xxxx
[FROM JRB: Thanks, Char! And special Brownie points to you for being the first contestant!]
Congrats, Jon Shew! Break a leg today everyone!
I was at the Birdland concert tonight and was definitely impressed with the karaoke contest winners. Natalie Hawkins’ rendition of “I’m Not Afraid of Anything” in particular was beautiful. Thanks for holding the contest! It was so much fun… I hope you do another sometime. 🙂
I just happened upon the contest winners and wanted to say congrats!
I entered the contest as well, and while I didn’t win, I definitely got some gigs out of it, which works for me!
Thanks so much for the opportunity, Jason! Hope you do this next year.
I hope the concert went well last night. I wish I could have been there – and thanks to Jim Caruso at Birdland for acknowledging my work at theBestArts.com.
Other than your Website Weasels (their term, not mine), I probably analyzed the JRB contest submissions more closely than anyone. I am completely satisfied that the winners were chosen based on most YouTube votes per song. I didn’t see any indication of favoritism based on personal connnections.
“I’m Not Afraid” had many more submissions than the other two songs, so it’s appropriate that you named two winners from that song.
You ran an amazing contest and I hope comments from your viewers (including me) didn’t spoil this for you in any way. I held a high opinion of you and your work before the contest, and my impression has only improved.
If you get some time in the future, I’d love to see a few more comments from you about your favorite non-winning entries – but I realize that may not be possible.
All the best,
Kevin Ireland
I’ve adored Natalie Weiss for a while… and Jonathan Reid Gealt is a pretty fantastic composer too. It’s awesome to be introduced to the other two singers.
In fact, this contest has introduced me to quite a few new talented voices!
Thanks!
Geez, really? I thought a different Jonathan, Jonathan Shade, blew ALL of them out of the water.
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