The young performers who made the cut took their act to the Banneker Room on Thursday night, singing in front of judges Justin Custer, an Ellicott City native now with the Baltimore independent rock band Squaaks; Amy Fadool from Fox 45-TV; and Carmen Albuerne, a library employee.
Most contestants, like Laura Harrison, didn't take the event lightly. After all, the audience included "basically half of my friends, plus my voice teacher," she said. Laura, 12, wore a sparkly blue dress as she sang "Part of Your World" from The Little Mermaid.
After she had finished, she sat in the lobby with some friends, waiting for the performances to end.
FOR THE RECORD - In an article published in Wednesday's Howard section about the Howard County Library Teen Idol competition, the school that Daniel Goldstein attends was incorrect. Goldstein is a rising eighth-grader at Ellicott Mills Middle.
The Sun regrets the error.
"I've been singing for a while," she said, adding that most of her day had been spent performing in High School Musical, a production of the Howard County Summer Theater. In that production, she plays the "brainiac," she said, "which is opposite of my normal personality."
Anna Mateo, 14, who sang "Can't Bring Me Down" by Karina Pasian, said she'd "possibly" try out for the TV show version when she is old enough. She learned about the county competition on the library Web site, she said, and thought it would be fun to compete.
"I wasn't as nervous as I thought I'd be," she said. "It was more like a fun experience."
Throughout the competition, master of ceremonies Jojo Girard of WMIX-FM said jokingly that competitors would be judged on a 60-question math test in addition to their musical abilities.
"A little bit of algebra, not much," he said. "And four story problems."
Though everyone laughed, the judges were quite serious about their own math. For each category, they rated the singers on a point scale from 1 to 5, then tallied the results to choose the winner. All seemed to fall in the Paula Abdul category of erring on the side of generosity.
"I've never judged a competition like this before," Custer said. "It was hard to pick a winner."
Fadool, who also served as a judge last year, said it was fun.
"I'm always awed that the kids can sing as well as they can," she said.
ksnitkin@comcast.net
