THE sheer number of acts made sure the Moyne’s Got Talent competition more than lived up to its name on Saturday night.
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Thirty talented solo artists, duos and bands took to the stage at the Lighthouse Theatre in Warrnambool in front of a crowd of more than 300.
Heats had whittled the 48 entries down to Saturday night’s final, where the acts has just one song with which to wow the judges.
In the senior section (for ages 16 and up), Warrnambool-Moyne four-piece Hoharlen took top honours, impressing the adjudicators with their harmonies and originality, organiser Geraldine Edar said.
Second place went to Port Fairy instrumentalist Will Ryan, and third place was taken out by Koroit pianist/vocalist Louis Chilton, who came first in the Moyne Idol junior section a few years ago, Ms Edar said. In the junior section (for ages 12 to 15), Warrnambool’s Kreeya Gladman was the winner for her performance of Dolly Parton’s Jolene.
She was followed by Warrnambool singer-songwriter Keelan Mast, who performed an original song. Third place went to Macarthur 12-year-old Jesha Pellazar, who covered The Lumineers’ Hey Ho.
The six winning acts shared a total prize pool of $1250 and four more acts will join the top six in travelling to Melbourne for a recording session as part of the Kool Skools project.
Edar said the Moyne Shire Youth Council had spent three months organising the talent competition and had done an excellent job.
She said there had been a good mix of seasoned performers and newcomers.
“A lot of the acts’ performances exceeded expectations ... and the size of the crowd took me by surprise,” she said.