Battle to Stardom

Who doesn’t love a good singing competition? Frostburg State University’s student organization Creative Minds is constantly bringing the university riveting competitions. This semester they hosted their version of The Four. The Four is a singing competition that is aired on the Fox network. Contestants are set to compete against each other to replace a member of four preselected artists that are known as “the four.” How do they go about replacing them? Well that’s what makes the show interesting. The contestants must outperform one of the four preselected artists in order to take their spot. The contestants can either sing or rap to rise to beat their opponent.

The event took place on Friday, November 2, 2018 in the Lane University Center. Tickets for the event could be obtained beginning on Monday, October 29, 2018. The event was made free for the FSU student population and for the residents who live in the community surrounding the campus.  At the beginning of the battle the original four, who had been picked by the members of Creative Minds, consisted of a rap artist and three singers. Each member of the four opened the show with a performance to show the audience their skill. From there, the battle had begun. Each contestant would showcase their talent, and if the judges felt as though they did a good enough job, they could move on to battle a member of the four.

One of these contestants was Christian Winkley. Winkley is a Clinical Psychology major here at FSU. “I haven’t made music in a while, so I was starting to think that the campus forgot I made music,” Winkley said. “It was cool to remind them.” The organization decided that their version of the show would hold what they called “the comeback round.” In this round the contestants who were unable to advance to or past a battle with a member of the four would be given another chance to show the judges and the audience what they had to offer.

However, the audience had the opportunity to vote on which contestant they wanted to see in the comeback round. Winkley was one of those contestants. He stepped up in his battle against one of the singers in the four and earned himself a seat.

Between each round of the competition the audience was dazzled by performances. One of the performances came from the Frostburg Dance Academy. The members of the academy stole the show and earned a standing ovation. The show also included a riveting performance from a group of FSU students who call themselves “Identity.”

Although each of the contestants did an amazing job, there could only be one winner. By the end of the show the audience had voted via Twitter polls and Ashley Harris was crowned the winner. Beginning as part of the original four, Harris sang her heart out in three amazing performances to show the crowd why she deserved to win. She blew the judges and the audience away with heart-wrenching songs, and soul soothing notes. “It feels amazing,” Harris said of her win. “Honestly, I’m just so happy to have been a part of such a beautiful event. I’m just amazed by how talented everyone was. I’m grateful as well for all of my supporters and fans. I love everybody”.

Even though it was a great night for the organization, they would be saying farewell to one of their members. The founder of Creative Minds and current president, Justin Alexander, announced that it would be his final showcase here at FSU. Alexander will be graduating in December and will be passing the torch on to his fellow board members. Alexander said, “it’s surreal as of now, but it’ll probably hit me when I walk across the stage.” Alexander said he hopes his successors can take the organization further than he was able to, saying “I want to come back and it be the top organization on campus”.

Be sure to stay connected to Creative Minds through their Twitter account @CreativMindsFSU.