After sifting through Trinity Idol’s biggest applicant pool ever, Mu Phi Epsilon, Trinity’s music fraternity, selected 10 diverse finalists for this year’s performance. The group, which featured a few bold and talented first years, some contestants from years past, two science majors and one math major, sang everything from Broadway show tunes to familiar classics, like “Somewhere Over the Rainbow.”
The theme of this year’s Trinity Idol coincided, as it traditionally does, with Tigerfest’s theme: it was inspired by “Casablanca” and Morocco, and Mu Phi called it “Moroccan Nights.” Much preparation on the parts of Mu Phi Epsilon and the Student Programming Board went into the production. In addition to being a singing competition, Trinity Idol is also a community service event that encourages students to bring canned food items to be donated to the San Antonio Food Bank to trade for Trinity Idol t-shirts. This year, the shirts were designed by Mu Phi member Jin Young Song. Rachel Lake, senior music and business double major, was Mu Phi’s Trinity Idol chair this year and accordingly knows the inner workings of the production.
“This year’s awesome batch of singers were selected by six Mu Phi members. Because we are a music fraternity, we know what to look for in regard to vocal skill, musicality, stage presence, et cetera. This year we ended up selecting six boys and four girls,” Lake said.
After the 10 finalists performed, they were pared down to a top three by the panel of judges, which consisted of religion professor Rubén Dupertuis, music theory and composition professor Brian Bondari and Aramark staff member Kim McAlister, who many students recognized from the Coates Commons dining hall.
The three finalists selected by the panel were Britani Bulloch, a sophomore economics major, Rex Simmons, a junior music major and Mason Walker, a sophomore English major. Bulloch performed a sassy and memorable rendition of “When You’re Good to Mama,” from the Broadway musical “Chicago”, Simmons, a creative arrangement and mash-up of “The Minstrel Boy” and “Cemetery Guns” by Fountains of Wayne and Walker an unexpected mash-up of two break-up songs: “Yesterday” by the Beatles and “Someone Like You” by Adele.
“There’s nothing I enjoy more than using music to move an audience, to take them places emotionally. A mash-up of “˜Yesterday’ and “˜Someone Like You’ seemed like a good way to do just that,” Walker said.
Once the three finalists were announced after panel deliberation, which coincided with performances by the Trinitones and the Acabellas for the audience, Bulloch, Simmons, and Walker were asked back to the stage and the audience was asked to vote for their favorite. Bulloch ended up with the most votes.
“I am Trinity Idol for 2012! It’s exciting. Honestly, I enjoyed rocking out with the other contestants backstage even more than winning. They’re all so talented and I wish we all could have been Trinity Idol winners. Super corny, I know, but I really do mean it,” Bulloch said.
