Emanuel Idol Winner Announced
Ben Goldstein has been name Emanuel Idol winner.
Ben Goldstein, Imbar Nassi, Victoria Bromberg, Tamar Hoffman & David Politzer
The project brought nine talented acts of all ages to the stage at Sydney’s Emanuel Synagogue on Sunday night. The singing competition invited entrants to compete for the title of Emanuel Idol and a grand prize of a recording studio session at Brighton Boulevard Studios.
The evening featured performances from nine finalists as well as special live performances from Ilan Kidron of the Potbelleez and Yaron Hallis of Monsieur Camembert. Both Ilan and Yaron were also members of the judging panel, along with Adam Majsay , Head of Music at Emanuel School, and Andrea Catzel, Musical Director at Emanuel Synagogue. The MC for the night was Adam Gelin, who kept the audience warmed up with his enthusiasm and wit and helped the night run smoothly and seamlessly.
A week of auditions had narrowed down the list of entrants to the top nine, who then competed live on stage for the title of Emanuel Idol. All of the performances were brilliant, and the judges and audience were genuinely impressed with the caliber of singing.
Andrea Catzel, ilan Kidron, Yaron Hallis & Adam Majsay
Of course, there had to be a winner, and Ben Goldstein of Emanuel School took out the title of Emanuel Idol with his stunning rendition of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah”. First prize was awarded by one of the team from Brighton Boulevard Studios, presenting Ben with a song recording session in the studio, under the production supervision of Tony Buchen who has worked with musical legends such as Tim Finn, Lior, John Butler The Whitlams, Andy Bull and Blue King Brown.
Second prize was a photographic session with Zorro Gamarnik. Fortunately Zorro was on hand to offer a solution to the judges awards dilemma. They struggled to decide on just one Second prize winner, Zorro stepped up to offer two sessions to two second place holders. This went to Imbar Nassi and Victoria Bromberger. Two totally different styles of performers, but both fabulously entertaining. Victoria sang a spine tingling rendition of “Somewhere over the Rainbow” from The Wizard of Oz, while Imbar sang a powerful “Signed Sealed Delivered” from Stevie Wonder.
The audience was not there just to watch though; they had to vote in the People’s Choice Award. This went to Tamar Hoffman and her band that brought the house down with their rocking performance of “Wheels” by the Foo fighters.
The acts line up for a group photo
An award was given by Ilan Kidron to a performer who showed special talent in songwriting. Ilan awarded one on one songwriting sessions to David Politzer who had performed and composed his own song “Take it or Leave it”.
In the end the judges couldn’t stop there, they were just too impressed with the performances. Yaron Hallis awarded an impromptu prize of Monsieur Camembert CD’s and swing dancing lessons to Sarah Encel for the most entertaining performance of the evening. With her theatrical rendition of “Adelaide’s Lament” by Frank Losser, Sarah had enchanted the judges and audience.
It was a wildly successful night. The venue was packed and the room was buzzing with good music, great sounds and wonderful performances.
Sorry, I’ve been corrected. The singing competition in Afghanistan was re-named Afghanistan’s Star.
Great story on Emanuel singing contest. Mazel tov all round. But couldn’t it have had a different name? I don’t think “Idol” is suitable for a contest held in association with our community. It’s fine a for the general public TV show. I notice that the same kind of competition held in Afghanistan (and the very first one to do so) was re-named Afghanistan’s Singing Hero.