Oakboro celebrates annual talent show with 23 performers

Published 11:21 pm Monday, July 1, 2019

Stanly’s got talent and it was clearly on display Monday evening during the Oakboro talent show.

The show, hosted by Wes Tucker, featured a several performances. Besides singers and guitar players, other performers included bands, mimes, a dancer and karate students.

The show is part of Oakboro’s Fourth of July festivities. Tucker said the talent show has been part of the festivities for about a decade. Hundreds of people watched the show.

Judges for the event included UNCC music student and professional musician Makayla Belcher, Miss Raleigh and Pfeiffer alum Tiffany Smith and Zach Winebrenner, who has a music degree from Chowan University.

There were 23 acts — 13 from the youth division and 10 from the adult division.

Seventeen-year-old Jake Bryant, from Stanfield, earned top honors in the adult division, playing guitar and singing Keith Whitley’s “Don’t Close Your Eyes.”

“I felt really confident in myself,” he said, noting he earned second place in the youth division last year. “When I walked off the stage, I had a good feeling about it.”

He’s been playing guitar for five years and singing for three years.

Daniel Poole, who performed his original song “Down,” took second place, while Heather Copple, who performed “She Used to Be Mine” from the Broadway musical “Waitress,” took third place.

For the second year in a row, 12-year-old Lena Preslar, from Oakboro, was the youth winner. She performed Adele’s “Hello.”

She said she was nervous when she was singing.

“I felt very excited,” she said when Tucker announced that she won.

She picked “Hello” because she felt the song was a good choice for her voice.

The band Kings of Yesterday, which performed their song “What’s the Name,” took second place, while Hadley Martin, who sang Lauren Daigle’s “You Say,” took third place.

Some winners from both youth and adult divisions: front row, from left: Hadley Martin and Lena Preslar; back row: Mysaiah Benjamin, Mychal Benjamin and Colin Talero of the band The Kings of Yesterday, Jake Bryant and Heather Copple.

“I love the fact that we had such a variety,” Tucker said, “because anything and everything was represented.”

About Chris Miller

Chris Miller has been with the SNAP since January 2019. He is a graduate of NC State and received his Master's in Journalism from the University of Maryland. He previously wrote for the Capital News Service in Annapolis, where many of his stories on immigration and culture were published in national papers via the AP wire.

email author More by Chris