{"id":73094,"date":"2017-01-26T22:03:53","date_gmt":"2017-01-27T05:03:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/cortez-idol-singing-competition-starts-saturday\/"},"modified":"2017-01-27T05:03:53","modified_gmt":"2017-01-27T05:03:53","slug":"cortez-idol-singing-competition-starts-saturday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/cortez-idol-singing-competition-starts-saturday\/","title":{"rendered":"Cortez Idol singing competition starts Saturday"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Some
Some of the 20 finalists for this year\u2019s Cortez Idol competition.<\/span>Jill Carlson\/For the Journal<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

The fifth annual<\/p>\n

The karaoke-style voice contest, modeled after the \u201cAmerican Idol\u201d TV show, has become a tradition at Blondie\u2019s Trophy Room since the bar\u2019s former owner started it in 2013. The 20 final contestants, chosen after two weeks of auditions, will compete every Saturday through March 4 in performances from a wide variety of genres, until the winner goes home with a $1,000 cash prize. This year, Jill Carlson, Aaron LeMay and Brad Sitton will be the judges, while local DJ P.A. Jackson will be the host.<\/p>\n

Each night of the competition is open to the public, and will have a different theme. Saturday will be \u201c80s Hair Band Night,\u201d with songs available by Aerosmith, Bon Jovi, Def Leppard and other metal bands. Other themes will include \u201960s and \u201970s soul, Madonna and a double performance night in which contestants will perform a rap and a British Invasion song. The grand finale night, which is scheduled for March 4, will include a chance for the audience to vote for a favorite singer. Costumes are encouraged for every performance.<\/p>\n

Carlson said about 40 people auditioned for the contest this year. Most of those who made it into the final 20 are high school or middle school students, which she said is unusual.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m always a little shocked, because you think Cortez isn\u2019t going to have a plethora of talent,\u201d Carlson said. \u201cBut we really do have a lot of people who are very talented singers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some contestants have come from as far away as Farmington. Some finalists have also gone on to compete in the similar Durango Idol contest.<\/p>\n

Cortez Idol draws a crowd, which is good news for Blondie\u2019s, since the audience is encouraged to buy food during each event. In previous competitions, some spectators call to reserve tables on performance nights.<\/p>\n

Everyone under the age of 18 must be accompanied by an adult.<\/p>\n

Carlson and the other judges hope this year\u2019s performances will encourage more people in the county to brush up on their singing and maybe even audition for next year\u2019s contest.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery year, we just try to do what we can to keep people coming back,\u201d Sitton said. \u201cAnd people always show up.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

If you go<\/h4>\n

What: Cortez Idol Competition
\n When: 7 p.m. every Saturday, Jan. 28 \u2013 March 4
\n Where: Blondie\u2019s Trophy Room, 45 E. Main St., Cortez
\n Cost: Free, but spectators are encouraged to buy food.
\n For more information: Call Blondie\u2019s at 970-565-4015 or go to the
\n Blondies Cortez Idol Competition<\/a>
\n Facebook page. The page includes a list of contest rules and contestants.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

contest starts Saturday<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":73095,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[21,13,559],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-73094","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-cortez","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-music"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73094","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73094"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73094\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/73095"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73094"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73094"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73094"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=73094"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}