Apollo Night at MC celebrates diversity on campus
The annual talent show, Apollo Night, was held in the Clayton Center for the Arts on Feb. 9. The event was hosted by the Black Student Alliance (BSA) as part of Black History Month. It has been 11 years since BSA first organized this event, which is intended to bring students together and celebrate the diversity of talents at Maryville College.
An integral part of Black History Month, the show was inspired by “Showtime at the Apollo,” a music television show that had its start in September 1987.
The event was open to the campus community and Aaron Solomon and Steven Harwell served as emcees. Friendly jokes between the two announcers kept the audience active and gave an encouragement to the participants.
Eleven students participated in the event, and most of the performances consisted of songs and dances.
By the end of the hour-long show, the panel of judges chose three winners. The winner of the first prize was an exchange student from Japan, Hikaru “Hiki” Yoshida.
“My name is Hiki, and I just came to the United States two weeks ago,” Yoshida said before she started her performance.
Yoshida, a sophomore from Osaka who is double majoring in Business and English, performed a Japanese song called “Tsumi to batsu,” which translates as “Crime and Punishment.”
“I used to sing American songs in Japan, but I wanted to sing a Japanese song because it was my first time performing in front of an international audience,” Yoshida said.
Hiki said she felt thankful for the support of the audience.
“I never thought that I would win because I was extremely nervous during rehearsals, and I even forgot all the lyrics,” Yoshida said. “However, when I went to the stage, I heard the cheering and applause.”
Zach Bruce got the second prize for the performance of the famous song, “Ordinary People” by John Legend. The third prize went to Double Trouble (Janeice Lindsay and Sydelle Young) for their dance performance.
Overall, both the organizers and performers did a great job. Even reporters from Channel 10 were in attendance and filmed Yoshida’s 1st prize winning performance.