April 17th, 2015
The River’s Voice went for Season 2 this year! Last year’s winner Lee-Wai Yu, and his band Bright City Heights was the house act at The Treasure Cove Casino’s Show Lounge. The doors were set to open at 6:00pm and we were all working behind them to make sure everything was ready to go. Meanwhile, the performers parents and fans were lined up outside to get the best seats even before the doors opened! It shows a lot about how much this event means to not only the artists who perform in it, but also to the community and people who have supported them all along. Time to get to those who performed! Our excellent MC’s Mike and Jessica of The River Wake Up, introduced us first to Demmy Hawkeye. Demmy has had a love of singing and has done it all her life, but had never performed in front of an audience of this size before. She did a great acapella performance and battled her nerves to show off that she does have a great voice performing. She sang I will See you Again originally by Carrie Underwood, Ghost by Ella Henderson and Big Girls Don’t Cry by Fergie. Next on the stage was Genevieve Tucker, who works at The Sound Factory as a voice instructor. Genevieve performed 2 of her own songs, and Love Me Like You Do by Ellie Goulding. Genevieve is a local girl and even started off in the Bel Canto Choir. Then it was time for Rae Wely to take the stage, where she casually joked with Mike and Jessica about colds. Rae was born and raised in Prince George, singing Disney songs and is a founding member of Circadian Rhythm. Rae performed a song from her band, then Elastic Heart by Sia and ended her set with Lady Gaga’s Born This Way. The last performer to take the stage was Erika Callewaert who has been performing at lots of local venues, and teaches voice lessons at Dreamland School of the Arts. Erika performed Georgia on My Mind originally done by Hoagy Carmichael, I Will Always Love You by Whitney Houston and I’m the Only One by Melissa Etheridge. After each set of songs, all the performers got feedback from the judges. There was no Simon Cowell on our panel and the judges only had positive comments on how to improve the artists’ performances. Then came time to vote. Bright City Heights took the stage again while the audience voted. They had lots of the staff from the station dancing along. Then voting closed and the performers eagerly held their breath while the votes where tallied. After a couple more songs from Bright City Heights, all the judges, MC’s and even I ended up on stage to announce the winner. Then it was done, and Rae Wely was pronounced the winner after a tight battle to the end. She then performed, Lights by Ellie Goulding. The crowd was cheering and gave her a standing ovation by the end. So ended the River’s Voice Season 2, and Bright City Heights rocked the room for the rest of the night. Congrats to all the contestants of The River’s Voice 2015.