A show of lights, mind-blowing talents and an immaculate vibe coming from the performers. That is the only way to describe the first in-person talent show here in Everett High since Covid 19.

The crowd was filled with friends and families supporting their loved ones and appreciating other performances. Singers, musicians, dancers–we saw it all.

About eleven acts performed at the talent show. Three students played the piano, one played the guitar, one danced and six students sang, one of them being an a capela performance. 

“When it was my turn to perform I got really nervous,” said sophomore Ruben Dantas, first place winner of the talent show. “I’m usually very competitive so all I could think about was ‘I need to do a perfect performance,’ and according to the judges I did so I’m really happy with that.”

“The process of picking the song was pretty fast compared to others,” Dantas said. “Some people took a long time picking what they were going to play or sing, but not me. I just picked a song that shows a lot of the piano but also gives the crowd a vibe and I’m glad I picked that song, “If I Ain’t Got You,” because everybody knew the song and they all vibed with it.”

“The feeling of having everybody scream your name is almost indescribable,” said Dantas. “My heart was racing and I was very excited. I wasn’t so sure about winning because there were so many talented people performing and the scores were very high. I mean not even one person got a score lower than three and that got me a little intimidated, but by the end of all of the performances I was confident that I was going to make at least to the top three and here I am now the winner of the first place.”                                     

“Winning was good but the overall experience was much better,” said Dantas. “I will definitely be doing this again in the future.” 

The second place winner of the talent show was junior Aaron Chavez. 

“This was not my first time singing in front of so many people,” said Chavez. “At first I was really shy, I’ll be honest I was just doing that whole thing for the money, and on top of that, I only rehearsed that song for three days with [music director Gene] O’Brien, while some people rehearsed their performance for a month. To be honest the feeling of being on the stage and having everybody interacting with your performance is just amazing, it feels like a big dream that is all I can say, it feels nice to win.”

The audience, who filled the school auditorium voluntarily on a Thursday afternoon after school, loved it.

“It’s good for students to express themselves and to be able to express their talent and encourage others to participate in the same way,” sophomore Rochelle Castor said. 

“I think it was good because there were a lot of good people who expressed their talents in all unique and different ways very well,” sophomore Angelina Papa said.

The performers were Edin Flores Montano, Gia Price, Lyric Jean-Charles, Flantchesca Charles, Raeliyah Previlon, Leyna Nguyen, Nicole Sinisterra, Evangelia Pappas, Aaron Chavez, Laicka Francesse Paulo, Vinny-Hung Tran, Anthony Couto, Ruben Dantes,

, Jason Stark, Jeremiah Jean Louis, Carlos Rodrigues, and Leison Ruiz.

Between all of the talents and amazing performances the four judges–Mark Sachetta and Michael Castellano, choral director Corey Crofoot, and art coordinator Caroline Dicicco–had a hard time making their decision.

“When looking into a talent show you never know what to expect,” said music director and host Gene O’Brien. “When these students are on stage all we can say is, wow, holy moly, these students have a lot of talent and excellent skills.” 

“The good thing about Everett is that we have very good rhythm,” O’Brien said. “We also have a lot of people performing piano, singing, rapping anything, you name it.” 

Overall there was positive feedback from this event, the auditorium was filled with people and students seemed to enjoy the event.

“It’s good for students to come together to support one another,” sophomore Ashley Seward said. “There are so many negative things in the world so little events like this are what can make the community stronger.”