would not have been possible we'd also like to think miska sheena who organize this event and made everything come together thank you as you may know this event is a fundraiser to support diversity programming here of us different events presentations panels discussions where students are exposed to new ideas and given an environment in which they can feel comfortable asking questions and discussing challenging on the topic of diversity we have a wide range of entertainment for you tonight from dancers to gymnast to metal bands we've had a lot of fun putting this together and we know you're going to enjoy it too as most of you know  heather is a singer songwriter heather is a singer songwriter who has been on the stage for many years she performed in musical theater throughout high school and college and also founded to acapella groups days i at the bryn mawr school in baltimore and hey be as chorus at yale law school as one half of the folk do ok in o'connor heather performed at colleges and clubs including columbia university c v jeebies and club passim and released an album of original music there also sings with richard percy's group positive energy and and award winning band led by her husband and fellow judge john spratt king heather and john also saying in a folk duel called the yellow room thanks for being here miss clay special of the executive bands and were finalists in fortune magazine's battle of the corporate bands john luminaries have performed at venues such as the rock n roll hall of fame the bluebird cafe and nashville that have shown boston clubhouse richard as a keyboard player singer arranger and composer who has lived in belmont since one thousand nine hundred two he concentrated in serious music at harvard in the seventy's but has focused on popular music and jazz for much of his life for many years he performed with and arranged for the popular party band the marcels these days he leads the belmont group positive energy there's been a favorite actor many years at the second friday coffee house and a fund raising events for haiti earthquake relief and balanced parents of music students he also  part of love fest a tribute band that celebrates the music of the sixty's festivals thank you for helping us with our event tonight  will be witnessing our acts this evening for the first time just like all of you addressing each after their performance voting in alternately telling their vote to decide on the winner of belmont idol twenty sixteen so without any further ado on to the competition  felt the music we could see it moved to the music you paid attention especially us at the needs of the audience you made contact with them so andre it copy your buddies there connect connect with the audience and  the move with the music a little bit i love the vocals and how you shared really really really nice so i thought you guys were really tight music was really together and it was great you had a lot of energy which was really nice to see that lead guitar parts both of them were excellent i wish they'd been a little tiny bit louder but the or so ozzy osborne like a really good singer you crazy guy is a really really good singer in that that high stuff can get a little tough at times so you know if you tune everything down to have stuff and you play it like you're playing it you're going to hit those notes square on next time but it was awesome guys really great things metallica and iron maiden have you guys tried writing your own metal songs yeah i write a lot of the music and written some great lyrics and reporting together next stop we have two female vocalist denise and nine performing just give me a reason b so you guys both have beautiful voices you had you sang with a lot of emotion which was really nice to see there was a lot of feeling behind that you had a good pitch you had those notes beautifully it was also a lot of that phrasing is hard to do and you did a really nice job with it the only i guess the thing i would say for next time to work on a little bit is when you hear two people on stage when you're in a duo like that it's sometimes it's good to have kind of a dynamic between you and you were both more solo performers than you were a duo so sometimes you know when you're doing something like that just acknowledging the other person stepping back while they're singing taking you know kind of stepping forward and back and letting one person take the lead but you both had really nice presence it's just it's the first time you sang together and those things come with time i would second all of that for sure you both are really comfortable on stage and with no instrument in front of you and just a mike stand it was it was great in your motion the motion came through and your singing was excellent and again like the king at each other on the stage a little bit acknowledging what the other person singing that's a really it's a at that's just getting comfortable with each other as a duo thing it'll come with time for sure so who's who which is which i eight you really connected well with the audience and you could see it in the expression on your face the nice you could do a little bit more of that i liked the original way you  change the sort of the rhythm of the phrase to learn to love again it showed that you not just you know doing a record copy i really like that thank you sorry i forgot to turn off my phone so when did you start singing our start i started singing pretty much after i was born in my professionally so how long have you been in the u i picked a good song for you it really fits you and there's no one like adele to interpret a lyric and you were able to do that a little bit especially way you managed to have good dynamic range just  the low parts were soft and intimate and then the chorus is you know they belted out and that was really really nice and i liked your hand gestures very much that they fit that they fit the words nice work if you like those moves get ready for our next performance our first dance performer of the night let's welcome when did you start dancing very nice very nice and did you did you design all these steps yourself and i really like when you just when you sat down with him and when the guy was rapping given nice change of of the mood it's really really well put together the only thing i could recommend is use more of the stage you know you get a little winded at the end but  e more of the stage you're a dancer and that was a cracker for us really interesting it was fun to watch the whole time you can you know take your eyes off of what you're doing and kept it interesting and compelling i agree with richard i think you could have used a little bit more of the stage but it's hard when you're just one person on stage there's i can't really add anything to to that there was really it was really really fun to watch and i loved the  with the guy is doing his thing and you're doing his thing as the guy and like being two totally different characters on the stage as part of one dance was it was really cool was really neat in the the fly girl kind of thing was awesome really really  audience i have one question for you john i got so mary how did you choose that song well i was inspired by many people in my life and i thought i could resonate to that song very well and has a very powerful meaning technically it's also very difficult to sing that song so if you're going to choose to have to commit to it all the way was really impressive you have an incredible vocal range and you really know how to use it i thought the rap in the middle was really cool really different it was an unexpected i thought i knew this song and then you started doing that and it wasn't what i expected i thought it was great it was really original and this is a song that's got a lot of people cover so in order to do something unique with it in if you're able to do something unique with it it's a great thing to do the one thing  that i would say is that there wasn't a lot of dynamic range in what you did a lot of it was just you know straight on full on the whole time and i think sometimes if you can can vary dynamic range of what you're doing you can bring a little bit more to us on thank you yeah i would agree with all of all of what heather just said for sure i mean i love the way you work the stage i love the love the rap i mean i've heard the song for twenty five years now it's like i've never heard anybody do that before with that song was super cool but yeah the arrangers great of the high and mariah carey note in the in the key change verse was great was really unexpected as well  dynamics are definitely a thing to think about you know it don't start on right out of the gate like bring it with you you have the ability for sure to start really quiet and really build and then really nail people towards the end and then just  you have such a powerful voices and you just have a lot of confidence and it's very clear comes through very very clearly nice work thank you  friends from a camp he is obsessed with and he kind of gave me the idea to kind of like go with give me love because the harmonies are super rad and i thought i would be super cool if the violin was a good choice really really the thing that i would say this is i want to get criticism out of the way first it's nothing about either of your playing it's next time if you can plug your guitar instead of having a microphone in front of it so you can move around solid your violin playing was great the song choice was great perfect for both of your singing rangers i mean it was really great the way you looked at each other like we were telling somebody else really it's a good thing to take some time and learn how to be on stage with each other and play off of each other that was a really really nice and if it was spontaneous it worked great if it was practiced it was great really outstanding thank you thank you both of you have a lot of confidence and you're very comfortable on stage you've been performing on stage in front of people for a lot of time yeah yeah it's you know it's it really shows and you know both of you have really there's not a good blend and you guys have a really really nice blend the chemistry on stage was great you had a lot of energy it was it was terrific thank you thank you next we have our last dance of the night with an incredible gymnastics performance so how much time you spend practicing per week around eighteen hours a week do they pay you for that yeah i wish the other way round really what you like about dancing i really love being able to express myself through the music and  artists but also involves a lot of dance so that's what i was doing here i love the ribbon thank you really beautiful that was really very prescient thank you so much it was one of those things where i didn't even want to look away for a minute to take a note it was just he couldn't take the take your eyes that were great the ribbon was really cool to watch it out of there really neat element to what you were doing and it was just incredibly dramatic it was it was beautiful next we have ashley singing saving all my love for you i hope you folks are sitting down because this will blow you away are there any specific people in your life that are really influenced you in all do you the most inspirational people in my life or definitely my auntie donna and my mom they've pushed me so far and help me to become  great vocal range you had a lot of expression and you brought a lot of emotion to it you really were playing with the audience and that's it's nice to see somebody to that it's it's terrific the way the one thing i would say is again with with the dynamics of what you're singing you were you were all sort of in the same dynamic range there were a couple times you brought it down a little bit but if you had brought it down a little bit more and then gone to where you know you can go it would have brought just a little bit more to it but that is a tiny tiny criticism on a terrific performance thank you david do you feel good i do i'm nervous but i feel good if you play any other instruments i play a little guitar and piano i dabble you know so why did you choose that side kind of music with a pop so i feel like the song too it's really fun song when did you find out you love singing i don't know i really always enjoyed making music something that i really feel comfortable with so do you think you're going to do something music related as a profession i really hope so my plan is to try to make music career i don't know quite how yet but i have i have some some good ideas wow so many famous you can say you saw him here first let's see what the judges think that was that was great david that was really soulful thank you just just great the one the mean your mike placement stuff you were playing with the with the mike and walking around and you just looked like you were having fun doing it and that's like to me that's like the best thing ever to see in a performer you know look like i don't like the serious looking guy on stage like big thousand watt smile up there that was  much and the only thing that i would ask from you is use your falsetto more you've got a great great falsetto i mean the rest of it was awesome too but the falsetto was like there it is killer just keep doing thank you yeah you have a really great voice you can you can tell you're a musician at heart you understand how to express a lyric and it was really really nice thank you so much my only my only suggestion to you is find your own voice you've got enough in you you don't have to emulate anybody michael blaze a great guy to emulate but find your own voice because you you could be something so i don't have a lot to add it was really fun to watch you i love the stuff you did with the mike stand that was great i loved the break between the sort of serious beginning and then suddenly you were having fun and you're fos out it was terrific it was i broke down as soon as soon as you did i said you know wish you could do more of that but the whole performance was was really engaging and fun to watch thank you so much last but not least we have a band many of you already know from their performances coffeehouses get ready for our final performance of the evening free shipping actually did you guys come up with a name for shipping everybody loves free shipping i this is true this is true so have you guys written many original songs no but i think t some i mean we may be working on something but it's kind of one of the oh yeah well we can't wait to see you perform again of future events judges they're all are good yeah the combination of trumpet and lead vocal as that was awesome the band was super tight you guys really with a lot of people on stage you all really were connecting while you were performing and it's great to see it was rock and i loved it piano horns it was like i don't know if you guys ever seen st paul in the broken bones but if you haven't look at them on you tube and say oh my god that's what a band like you guys can go to just where you might need to like you know where oh oh yeah you guys you guys say something yeah so you guys we just wanted to let you all know that you guys were just all  you we're all just really really great if we can't stress enough to you guys in to the people in the audience how how hard it is to get onstage and do what you all did tonight perform for an audience full of people you have to win them over you have to you have to do your thing and really bring it on you all really brought it in that takes an unbelievable amount of courage in nerve and professionalism and fun and love and passion and you guys all did that's night you give them all a huge round of applause for that the matter what our decision was we just want you all the know that you guys should all keep doing it just keep doing what you're doing it's a really it was really hard decision tonight but keep doing your music keep doing your dance keep doing your performances you guys are all stars was i think they want to say him this was fun