For a moment, the crowd went crazy.

 

Cheering, yelling and shouting echoed off the walls of Schine Underground. It was so loud, people across campus might have heard and sensed the enthusiasm.

Ryan Whitman slowly made his way to the stage, placed himself behind an electric piano and pulled the microphone near his face.

Suddenly, the audience went silent long enough for Whitman to announce he would be singing a song he had written.

‘You know when you like someone and you see them with someone else and it kind of sucks?’ Whitman, a junior music industry and vocal performance major, asked the crowd.

The audience went crazy again, a response that provided Whitman the answer he was hoping for.

‘Well, I wrote a song about it,’ he continued. ‘It’s called ‘You’re Not Mine.”

With the crowd’s encouragement, Whitman was able to land himself in first place at last night’s 2010 Syracuse University Idol.

SU Idol, a competition much like the musical reality television show ‘American Idol,’ featured seven university students who competed for a chance to sing the national anthem at an Orange basketball game.

University Union President Andrew Beyda said this year’s competition was geared toward singers who could write and perform their own music.

‘In previous years, it was more of a karaoke event, and it was problematic because you couldn’t modulate the song to another key for each person,’ he said. ‘But this year, students can sing along to live music or play their own instruments.’

This change allowed contestants to perform in any medium they liked. Some played their own instruments, others sang along to karaoke and one student even sang a cappella, undaunted without musical accompaniment.

Two years ago, Samantha Hake, a junior television, radio and film major, broke a blood vessel in her vocal chord and had to refrain from singing. Given the fact that she had been singing since she could talk, she was not happy. Finally ready to start performing again, Hake said the competition was the opportunity to make her comeback.

‘I’m slowly trying to get back into singing and put myself out there,’ she said.

And she sure did. Hawk was the only contestant who sang a cappella. She made her way onto the stage, grabbed the microphone and went for it.

‘It was nerve-wracking,’ Hawk said. ‘You have nothing to rely on — no music. It’s just you and your voice.’

Hawk said she was very satisfied by her performance. Even though she didn’t win, she said she was happy with the positive feedback from the judges.

This year’s judges included Bob Halligan, a music and entertainment industry professor in the College of Visual and Performing Arts, Brittnee Anderson, a junior public relations major, and Max Martino, a renowned agent in the music industry.

Beyda said each judge was chosen with a specific purpose.

‘We wanted to get judges that have experience in this sort of thing,’ he said. ‘We wanted people who have experience in the industry and music.’

The judges, however, were not the only ones who got to choose the winners. While they chose the top three finalists, the audience was able to vote via text message and have a say in who should be SU’s idol. And amid more yelling and cheering, the crowd chose Whitman.

Nick Anaya, a junior marketing major, was present at the event to support his friend.

‘Ryan blew me away,’ he said. ‘I’ve seen him perform before, he’s always great, and I’m really proud of him.’

Whitman said singing an original song made him nervous.

‘As a songwriter, your main goal is to touch your audience with your music and hope that they can relate to what you’re singing,’ he said. ‘It was a concern of mine that people didn’t know it, so I’m very glad with the response I got.’

Whitman is currently working on his demo album. So far he has written four songs and has sent the demo out to several music companies. But for now, being the university’s idol and being at the receiving end of all those chants are fulfilling enough for him.

‘I feel really honored to have been among that group of seven people,’ Whitman said. ‘The talent was just amazing. This is such a great honor.’

mgegkolf@syr.edu

Published on October 12, 2010 at 12:00 pm