LEWISTON — “Maine’s Got Talent” celebrated 10 years of local music flair Saturday at the Franco Center on Cedar Street.
This year’s event sold out, filling some 420 seats at the Franco Center according to event organizers.
The show was emceed by Molly McGill and featured six solo performances, a three-piece band and a duet. Performances were judged by Joe Philippon of Lewiston Police Department, former “Maine’s Got Talent” performer Tom Doucette and WBLM’s “Celeste.”
Performing this year were Ashley Gurney, Madison Shepard, Dylan Tanguay, JoAnna Hughes, Eden Bauer, Tim Lynch, and Holly and Mickey McCauley. Band Vexica featured Ed Fuller on guitar, Jill Buote on bass guitar and Devon Roma on drums. Sean O’Brien provided reception music on saxophone.
“Maine’s Got Talent” is the largest annual fundraiser for Sandcastle Clinical & Educational Services, a local nonprofit at 72 Strawberry Ave. Sandcastle provides mental health services, speech therapy, audiology and occupational therapy for children and families of all abilities, and has accredited preschool and prekindergarten programs.
“We’re excited about all of this support from the community,” said Stephanie Gelinas, executive director and founder of Sandcastle. “We’ve been around for 28 years and have loved this event for, wow, 10 years, now. Ten years of celebrating Maine’s talent has been a great way to support (our efforts), and Maine really has got talent!”
Hughes won the first-place prize of $750 and a spot on the RiverFest lineup in July. She sang a cover of Lesley Gore’s “You Don’t Own Me” and after the announcement of her win, Hughes performed an encore of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah.”
The second-place $500 prize went to Shepard for her rendition of Sara Bareilles’ “She Used to Be Mine,” and Tanguay snagged the third-place prize of $250 with his cover of Tracey Chapman’s “Fast Car.”
Returning competitor Ashley Gurney performed Norah Jones’ “Sinkin’ Soon”; Vexica, Led Zeppelin’s “Black Dog”; Bauer, a Welsh lullaby sung in Welsh; Lynch, an original called “Feel Good”; and the McCauleys, Meghan Trainor’s “Like I’m Gonna Lose You.”
MaineStrong Collective Initiative, led by Kabwe Mwilambwe, performed an original piece, “Stronger Together.” The song is an anthem for the resilience and spirit of the Lewiston-Auburn community written in collaboration and performed six months after the Oct. 25 mass shooting.
MaineStrong members included Ghislaine Mparanirubumwe, Ayesha Hall, Carol Clark, Edward Frank, Eric Bryant, Patience Success Juwah, Tom Doucette, Adam Hanson, Joe Rawls, Mark Pendleton, Beth Hanson, Emilee Unterkoefler, Ginger Leigh Smith, Hollie Billings, Shawna Haley-Bear, Kabwesta Zoe Irakoze, Sam Hanson, Elizabeth Ramos, Britaugh Ramos, Jonathan Ramos, Anita Alef, Brianna Lapointe, Emily Morse, Heritier Nosso, Shelly Suzuki, Believe Misenga Mukendi and Jacob Simon Kulaila.
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