The Martlet

If record label executives were scouting for talent at the 2009 UVic Idol Finale, they’d have signed at least one of the eight finalists to a multi-million dollar record deal by now.

Matt Lemay, Erin Tomkins and Gabrielle Odowichuk threw their voices towards the rafters in Vertigo on March 27, on their way to taking first, second and thrid prize respectively.

Event organizer and UVSS Director of Finance Tracy Ho said the votes for the rest of the finalists were close.

Graham Cooke, Emily Mintz, Laura Chisolm, Justin Powell and Darelle Odo rounded out the event’s lineup. Each contestant sang two songs each for the boisterous crowd.

“We were at about 300 people at the busiest in Vertigo, but a steady 250 all night,” said Ho about how fun the incident-free event was for the many students in attendance.

CFUV’s Reverend Donnie Black ­— clad in both black and blue versions of his crushed velvet pimp suit over the course of the night — kept the proceedings moving with sweet pyrotechnics and metal serenades.

Black also managed to deftly get Lisa Shaw, one of the Idol judges, out of hot water when he crowd started to boo her for criticising Darelle Odo’s rendition of Carrie Underwood’s “Before He Cheats.”

Shaw, herself a past Idol contestant and currently an elementary school music teacher, told Odo she loved her as a singer but thought she could have brought more to the song. As Shaw struggled against the audience’s jeers to critique Odo while simultaneously professing her admiration, Black wryly noted that “some people just don’t undertand love.”

Shaw’s fellow judges, John Siderer of Vancouver Island Breweries and UVSS Director-at-Large Teresa Sims, easily escaped the crowd’s criticism with their positive words for all of the contestants.

Odowichuk’s soulful takes on the White Stripes’ “Seven Nation Army” and Ella Fitzgerald’s “A-Tisket, A-Tasket” were good enough to net her third place and a Bigeast/west Moose Tour & Accomodation from Travel Cuts worth $750.

Tomkins, who placed in 2008’s UVic Idol Finale, walked away with second place and a $1,500-value first-class Eurorail Flexi-pass from Travel Cuts. Tomkins couldn’t say enough about her positive experience.

“I wasn’t nervous, perhaps partly due to the gin, and ... I could tell from stage that everyone was having as much fun as me,” said Tomkins.

Lemay earned the $1,000 in cash put up by Vancouver Island Breweries and Rockstar that he took home for first place, making sure the crowd could dance to his “Mustang Sally” victory serenade.

-with files from Danielle Pope