Friday night, 15 acts took the stage of the Chester Fritz Auditorium to compete for the title of Grand Cities Idol.

Grand Cities Idol is an annual singing competition that features students from Grand Forks Central, Grand Forks Red River and East Grand Forks Senior High to perform songs of their choosing and compete for a grand prize of cash and a recording session. Students selected for the Grand Cities competition  competed and placed in their respective high school’s “Idol.” The event is sponsored in part by the Summer Performing Arts Company.

The winners of Grand Cities Idol were announced late Friday night through the SPA Facebook page. Third place went to Thomas Johnson (GFC), second to Brody Katka (EGF) and first place to Ella Dostal, Aubrey Connolly and Brady Ritland of (RR) for their rendition of Coldplay’s “Fix You.”

Performances Friday night were a mixture of solo and ensemble acts. The majority of the songs were given musical accompaniment by students themselves rather than a recorded track, showcasing instrumental talent as well as vocal.

The largest act on stage was a RR ensemble with a Blues Brothers-esque rendition of “Soul Man,” complete with brass instruments, backup singers and a cartwheeling duo at the microphone.

The most popular artist choices of the night were The Lumineers, Michael Bublé and Christina Perri, each with two of their songs performed.

GFC’s Thomas Johnson was the only contestant to perform an original song, a piece entitled “A Song for the Clouds (Charlotte),” that won him the title of “Knight Idol” at his school and moved several members of the audience to tears.

Competitors were chatty and excited backstage before the show.

Central’s Stephanie McWilliams had the first slot of the night singing Train’s “Drops of Jupiter” and was glad to be going early so her nerves didn’t build up. Having practiced a lot, McWilliams said he felt confident and excited to be performing in front of such a large audience. She also said it relaxed her to be among friends.

“All of us are super close,” McWilliams said. “Sure there’s competitiveness, but if one of us wins over the other, we’ll support them.”

Max Pickett was in the same boat. The Red River sophomore said all he hoped for Friday night was everyone would do a good job. This was his first time as a Grand Cities Idol competitor, and only the third or fourth time he had sung alone in front of a crowd. However, the size of the crowd at the Chester Fritz didn’t intimidate him.

“It’s no different than performing in front of two people or going into the Fargodome and performing,” Pickett said. “There’s a difference of numbers, but you’re still just performing to people.”

Pickett credits the energy of his audiences as the drive to keep performing.

The contestants of Grand Cities Idol 2015 kept the energy alive for the hourlong duration of performances, and the show concluded with audience members casting their votes for their three favorite performances of the night. Ballots were tallied to determine first, second and third place.

“You see the votes and you know that all the hard work paid off,” Pickett said.

Serianna Henkel is a staff writer for The Dakota Student. She can be reached at s[email protected].