IMAGE: Kelly Hannon, Starz Ireland 2013 Final Winner, pic by Louise Hannon Photography
Saturday 19th October has been marked on my calendar for a while now, so when it finally came, I arrived at Liberty Hall here on Eden Quay in our wonderful city of Dublin to see the Starz final show of 2013. After months of hard work by all entries, judges and staff this show will see who the best of the best was.
Who would be crowned King or Queen? The Panel of 10 Judges had a very tough job as all the acts were very good, but only 1 of the 30 something acts would take the crown while another would take a second prize.
IMAGE: Rise @ Starz Ireland 2013 Final, pic by Louise Hannon Photography
The scoring worked like this all the Judges marked each entry out of 10 points. Then the audience could vote for their favourite act to win the more support each act had on the night the more of a chance they had of wearing and keeping the crown.
The Hall was packed and the show went on for more than 4 hours, with guest acts along the way. But before the show kicked off we were treated to one of the many star guest performers and one lady making a name for herself is Allanna Hennessy the daughter of the judge and host, Sharon who gave us a brilliant cover of “Clown”, which is recorded originally by Emile Sande. Also there was a great guest star performance by a group of dancers from a stage school known as “Dean’s Ryan’s Kiss stage school”.
IMAGE: The Klares @ Starz Ireland 2013 Final, pic by Louise Hannon Photography
1st up was a young lady by the name of Emma Jordon who managed to get a good score of 73 out of 100. The show was great in my personal view better than the X-Factor, and we were highly entertained from rock groups such as “Rise “a group from Finglas who recently were featured here at the fountain your favourite online digital newswire, and Aslan would of been dead proud of Rise’s cover of their classic Crazy World. Also recently featured on the fountain was another group from Blackrock “The Klares” who scored a very impressive 97 out of the 100. Also up on stage was Top Notch herself delivering a great live version of her latest tune, A Device “ and also getting a decent score of 80 out of the 100, Top Notch as you may be aware has also been featured on our news wire.
IMAGE: Top Notch @ Starz Ireland 2013 Final, pic by Ricardo
Please refer to the entry lists to see who was on stage and what score they were given by the judges.
We were entertained by rock groups, dancers, solo singers, and certainly different the next act by a lady named Mellissa Murphy who sang us some Opera. Mellissa, was given a standing ovation and was the only act to be given the 100 out of the 100 points, for those of us who thought we didn’t like or understand Opera thought so differently after her stunning performances. Another young Lady simply known by Cynthia Edionseri brought the stage alive and she too got a decent high score of 98 out of the 100.
IMAGE: Cynthia Edionseri @ Starz Ireland 2013 Final, pic by Louise Hannon Photography
The guest list included Denise Brennan, John Gaughan from the Irish hit show “The Voice“. Another lady to entertain us was a very pleasant lady known as Angel, who did a great job on Depeche’s Mode I just can’t get enough.
The eventual winner – who received a €5,000 sponsorship deal – was a young lady by the name of Kelly Hannon, and 2nd prize which consist of €600.00 worth of recording studio time courtesy of Record.ie the official sponsor of this great competition went to another young lady Melissa Murphy, the girl who gave us the Opera treat.
IMAGE: Melissa Murphy (2nd place) @ Starz Ireland 2013 Final, pic by Louise Hannon Photography
Also 2 acts were given a development deal with Lunar Records in association with Greg French, who also happened to be a judge on this competition and they are AJ Banahan, and Melissa Murphy.
Full list of entrants and their stage scores (judges scores):
Emma Jordon – 73
AJ & Jodie Morris – 94
Rachael Greene – 78
Miss Teegan – 95
AJ Banahan – 82
Melissa Murphy – 100
Dermot O’Hara – 71
Rise – 87
Top Notch – 80
Elaine & Maive – 77
Eva, Chloe, & Katie – 84
Leroy Snr – 98
Amber Farrell – 83
Rachael Smith – 78
Joann O’Reilly – 90
Hanna Reddy – 97
Kelly Hanlon – 91
Callum Carroll – 86
Ms Cynthia Edionseri – 98
Leah Faye – 75
Sharon Whelan – 86
Ian O’Regan – 84
Katie Downey – 87
Kelly Doran – 74
Amy Keelin – 68
Dale Limpin – 97
Sorcha Moran – 87
Leah Barniville – 94
Jodie Morris – 83
The Klares – 97
Eileen O’Reilly – 87
The 10 judges on the night were Eugenie Materson, Alan Amsby, Sonja Molhich, Angela Madden, Mondo from RTE’s Fair City, Greg French, Valerie Roe, Jo Jordan, Robbie Kane and the host Sharon Steacy Hennessy.
The presenters of the night were Mr. Dave O’Sullivan from Fair City, and CO Host was a lady by the name of Esme Wallace.
IMAGE: Jodie Morris @ Starz Ireland 2013 Final, pic by Louise Hannon Photography
After having been following this competition for months and months I have to say it was a great journey. I met wonderful people on the way and met possible stars in the future. Now I know not all people can win, but hand on my heart I can say all who were on the stage on the final night were stars, well to me they were. As I said this show was better than the X-Factor and when it starts next year try and get to it, well the final in any way it is a great night of performance. Everyone at the Fountain wishes all the acts, the judges, the very best for the future.
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