Cahn Auditorium rocked Wednesday night as Northwestern’s finest sang, danced and performed in the second annual NU Idol competition benefiting Special Olympics.
Communication junior Allie Lind won the admiration of the crowd and the judges, taking home the first place title and an Apple iPod.
Lind, the first contestant to perform, impressed the crowd as she sang an original song, “Opposites Attract,” while playing the guitar. In the second round of the competition, she cemented her win by singing Etta James’ “At Last.”
According to Weinberg senior Mike Wong, the co-president of Special Olympics, NU Idol is the group’s biggest fund-raiser of the year.
“It is basically American Idol meets NU students,” he said. “(It’s) the best NU vocal talent with awesome faculty judges.”
Wong said the event raised between $1,200 and $1,300 last year and the group expected to make the same amount this year.
However, with 157 tickets sold, turnout was down from last year’s concert.
“It was a little smaller than last year, but we’re still happy,” Wong said, adding that the home basketball game and a tsunami aid concert could have contributed to the lower turnout. “We can only come out ahead.”
Communication junior Dan Clay was co-MC for the show.
“There were great performances from seven of the most talented kids at NU,” Clay said. “We had athletes from Special O opening the performance for us so it kinda ties it in that it is not just fun and entertaining but also for an awesome cause.”
“The Heartbreakers,” a performance troupe of Special Olympians, opened the show with a dance to the song “Proud to be an American.”
Three of the seven contestants were selected by the judges to move on to a final round, during which each belted out one more song.
Economics Prof. Mark Witte, chemistry lecturer Eberhard E. Zwergel and last year’s NU Idol champion, Ray Hah, a Weinberg senior, judged the competition.
“If I am ever with a girl, and she tells me to get lost, I hope she does it with a song like you sang,” Zwergel told one performer.
Witte brought along his sock puppet, Triumph the Insult Comic Dog. After a performer failed to reach several high notes, the puppet said, “I can’t hit the high notes because of my vet, what’s your excuse?”
Lind escaped some of the Simon-like abuse and said she was thrilled to be the new idol.
“It feels great to win, I’m really excited,” she said. “I decided I was just gonna come back every year because it is a Special Olympics fund-raiser.”
“It was definitely nervewracking,” she added. “You never know who has more people here and who the audience is gonna like. That’s what’s difficult about it, but I had a great time.”
Reach Jason B. Gumer at [email protected].
