Saratoga Idol officers produce successful event

Ten contestants took the stage on Nov. 29 at this year’s Saratoga Idol in the McAfee Center. Each contestant sang one song in the preliminary round, and then the top three singers were chosen by the audience to sing in the next round.

Freshman Nina Nelson won first which, junior Brian Park won second and senior Sanjeev Suresh won third. First place in the competition has never been won by a freshman before, so for Nelson it is an amazing accomplishment. Nelson sang “Hurt” and “Mercy On Me” by Christina Aguilera.

Those who didn’t win also had a great time.

“I thought it went a lot better than I thought it would,” Park said. “I was really nervous though because none of my friends have heard me sing, and then I had to sing in front of a whole audience.”

In order to do well in the competition, having friends or support in the audience was key, because they vote on the top three.

“I’m really happy about second, and all of the support I got was awesome and very much appreciated,” Park said.

The event ran smoothly because the organizers of Saratoga Idol, the junior class officers, put in an immense amount of effort to produce the show.

“Saratoga Idol required some very involved organization,” junior class officer Manini Desai said. “We had to find participants, make advertisements, decide on prizes, confirm judges and then replace judges who had made other plans, so it was very time consuming.”

Every officer was involved in some part of the organization, whether it be helping out with graphics, contacting the Tuxedo Warehouse for the attire or updating the administration on the progress of the event.

“We had a lot of last minute stand-ups, but all of the officers rolled with the punches,” Desai said. “Though the week before the event was crazy, it was all worth it.”

Junior class officer Rick Roy also made his contributions to the event by going out and buying the prizes, which were Chipotle gift cards, and helping out at the concessions stand at the actual event.

“We spent a lot of time working out logistics, but honestly the amazing talent we had this year in combination with the fun atmosphere made this the best Idol ever,” Roy said.