HUMBOLDT — Arts Humboldt made a young, local artists’ dreams come true this past weekend during their Sound Cheque Showcase.
This year’s event saw Megan Brooks take home the Randy Woods recording session grand prize worth $2,500 during the competition on Nov. 3 in the Rosewood Room at The Elizabeth.
Brooks captured the judges and the audience with two performances of popular songs on her ukulele. Judge Ryan Joesphson called Brooks’ performance flawless, “even with the nervous fingers,” and some hiccups on the ukulele that were quickly recovered.
The 16-year-old Grade 11 student at Humboldt Collegiate Institute has been singing for the last five years, she said, and was taking voice lessons under the tutelage of Rita Frank and singing in choir. She taught herself to play the ukulele over the past two years and really enjoys playing the instrument.
She admits she was nervous going into the performance but had fun, which was her goal of the competition.
“I accidentally had a wrong chord (at the beginning of the first song). I was a bit nervous, but I fixed it. Nobody really noticed so that’s good,” she laughed. “As long as I can have fun and everyone else does, then it’s good.”
Brooks was happy to perform with her family and best friend in the audience to support her.
The idea of working with Randy Woods and eventually being on the radio is still a crazy idea, she said.
“I have these songs that I wrote and to think that they’re going to get out there, so cool. I’m so excited.”
Other performers included Marilyn Fredsberg from Wynyard and Joelle Koenning from Cudworth.
