From the Bar Scene to the T.V. Screen

The audience squirms in their seats waiting to hear the results.  The tall blonde singer from Minnesota stands nervously on stage clinging to hear microphone, hoping the results are in her favor.  Her name is Cassandra Mae Jopp and she is a karaoke singer.  Perhaps, she is the epitome of karaoke singers because that exciting night, she was crowned Karaoke Queen on the hit T.V. show that aired last fall called Karaoke Battle U.S.A.

Many of you may have heard about this T.V. show because it was extremely popular.  At first I was a little skeptical.  What is a karaoke show doing competing with shows like American Idol, The Sing-off and The X-Factor?  Then I thought, they are all karaoke shows as well.  If you think about it, all the singing shows that are on T.V. right now are just "glamourized" karaoke shows.  These singers aren't singing original songs, (with the exception of the X-Factor) instead, they are singing cover songs.  The only differences are: they have no screen in front of them, they aren't in a bar, there are judges and they are soon-to-be famous!

The funny thing about seeing Karaoke Battle U.S.A on T.V. was that I was bummed that I didn't try out for it.  My mom kept pushing me and pushing me to try and deep inside I just didn't have the will to.  What really made me cringe was when I watched an episode and saw HER.  Her face was familiar; I had seen her before.  Who was she? I scrambled to my WeFest Karaoke Contest booklet and flipped to the pages of the winners of the year before me and, sure enough, there she was front and center.  Jopp had one the year before me.  Oh, and the year before that?  She won 4th!  I had won 4th place two years in a row now.  So, what does this tell me?  Well for starters, it tells hat the singer who won the Karaoke Battle U.S.A on ABC won the same dang place that I won in the same dang contest.  It was all clear to me now; this was something that I could attain very easily.  My dreams are not out of reach.  Holy Sh*t.

I have only been singing for a few years, yet I have immersed myself in every competition that I come across. I wanted to dig deeper into Jopp's history to see what else we had in common, so I read some interviews with her from some local newspapers.  One interview was in the Brainerd dispatch named "Retracing the journey".  In this interview, Jopp explains: "

“My first competition was when I was 11 at the Crow Wing County Fair in Brainerd. I was really green then and I was so scared that they had to start over. I got through the song and everyone was clapping, but I went crying off the stage. I remember seeing all the other performers and how excited they were and how they had the whole stage presence down. So I started watching famous singers and developed my own style and worked on it. I wanted to keep my passion going and I wanted to show people who I am.”

The last few lines of this really touched me.  I remember being so nervous the first year of the WeFest contest because I had never performed in front of that big of a crowd.  The other singers really seemed to have come into their own in terms of confidence and I was just the new-comer.  I didn't sing a country song and I had a very unique voice, so I didn't know what to expect.  Even thought I got 4th the first year I took something away from the experience.  I watched other singers over that next year and tried to build my own sense of style.  As the next year came along I was so confident and comfortable in my own skin that I made a generic song completely come to life.  One of the judges told me they have heard the song I sang so many times, but I sang it differently; I told a story.  That was the biggest compliment I have ever recieved.

By watching Karaoke Battle U.S.A and listening to Cassandra talk about her journey, it makes it easier to continue on my journey.  I have been thinking everyday about my next karaoke move and it looks like even the smallest steps can add up to big prizes.  I couldn't even imagine making it to the finals on a popular television show.  I always thought they were rigged!  But now that I have seen a familiar face who went through some of the same competitions and struggles that I went through, it makes it look a lot easier. 

Thank you to the people and contests who make our "small karaoke dreams" possible.