Last Wednesday, Mississippi State University’s Student Association Class Council held “MSU’s Got Talent” in Lee Hall’s Bettersworth Auditorium to raise money for this year’s class gift.
This year, the 2016 Class Council is fundraising to restore the 1922 brick columns on University Drive. However, they will still award cash prizes to the winners of the event and the organization with the most attendance.
22 performers were selected to participate in this year’s talent show. There were a wide variety of talents present in the show such as singing, dancing, ventriloquism, instrumentals, twirling and comedy. In addition to the performers, the class council called Alpha Phi Alpha President Jay Knott and Miss Maroon and White 2015 Callie Brown to serve as the MC’s for the night.
Maggie Thomas, freshman and member of the 2016 class council, expressed her excitement for the event.
“My favorite part of the show was seeing the audience’s reaction to the different acts,” Thomas said. “I saw the audition videos prior to the show, so I knew what the contestants were performing. The audience didn’t know what to expect though, and they seemed blown away by all the talent. It was exciting to see people enjoying the show.”
One winner from each category was selected to win $100. From the five categories, last year’s “2015 MSU’s Got Talent” overall winners, Alexa Rae Heffner and her doll Harley Heffner won again in the miscellaneous category with her outstanding ventriloquism. Terrell Jay Gilmore came in first among the instrumental contestants with his saxophone performance of “If I Ain’t Got You” by Alicia Keys. Jessica Smith won out the song category with her cover of “I Will Always Love You” by Whitney Houston. The Bollywood Steppers won over the judges with their hip-hop performance to Justin Bieber’s song “What Do You Mean” and placed first in the dance category.
Keaton Phillips placed first in the spoken word category with his comedic act. In addition to the actual competition, there was also a “Fan Favorite” contest via Twitter. The MSU Student Association tweeted each contestant’s name, and the contestant with the most retweets won “Fan Favorite” prize. Phillips was also crowned fan favorite by the students.
Among the five category winners, one overall winner was selected to win the $1,000. This year, the Bollywood steppers came in first in the dance category and won the overall competition.
The Bollywood Steppers, which includes Aishwarya Dikshit, Amesh Daga, Nendita Gubta, Ajimkya Nawarkar, Mukti Patel and Pronnoy Tarafdar competed in last year’s “MSU’s Got Talent” as well, but did not receive any reward for their performance.
“We wanted to show a little bit of what we know, which is Bollywood and hip hop, but last time we performed Bollywood, we didn’t connect with the audience because the song is not really an English song, and people didn’t understand what we are trying to do, Senior Mukti Patel said. “This time we thought we would take an English song and show a little bit of Bollywood with a little hip-hop fusion.”
The group added three new members last semester and plan on competing in the Indian Student Association Talent Show that will be held in Lee Hall on March 26.
When asked about how they planned to spend their $1,000 check, they replied with responses such as college tuition and props for future competitions.
Not only were the contestants able to win prizes, but the organization with the most attendance was awarded $200 for the philanthropy of their choice. Kappa Alpha Fraternity received this prize at the end of the night.
