There’s a New Manning in Town

Alex Parker Editor-in-Chief

Senior Broadcasting major, Joshua Manning, is this year’s Post Idol Winner! This event is in its fifth season and was hosted by Association for Campus Programming (ACP), Lambda Sigma Upsilon Fraternity Incorporated and Sigma Delta Phi Epsilon Incorporated. Throughout the event, which was held in the Hillwood Auditorium, members of the audience were able to live tweet with the hash tag #postidol2013.

The night started off with hosts, Eric Zirlinger, Jesus Cardenas, and Shaun Jackson welcoming the members of the audience as well as judges Alerie Tirsch, Fernando Mendoza and Jahmel Green. The first contestant was freshman, Talilah Meredith, wearing a royal blue dress; she gave her rendition of Beyonce’s “I Was Here.” Green and Tirsch were slightly harsh in their critics, however, Mendoza said it was her best performance.

Up next was senior Music Education major, Stephanie Eso, who belted out Miguel’s “Sure Thing.” All judges agreed that Stephanie had a great stage presence and really con- nected with the audience. Eso tweeted after her performance, “Thank you guys for all the support!! Amazing Crowd!!! #PostIdol2013.”

Manning was up next, singing Miguel’s “Adorn.” Before he started his performance, he asked all of the ladies in the crowd to come down into the first row and he proceeded to sing his song to them. Members of the crowd tweeted things like, “There’s a new Manning running New York: Josh Manning,” and, “Joshua is singing at my wedding.”

Unfortunately for Meredith, she was the first to leave the competition. The judges decided that Eso and Manning would be the final two to sing to the death. Eso started off with Alicia Keys’ “No One.” Again, Eso had the audience in the palm of her hands. Judges agreed and thought this was a better suited song for her vocal range.

Manning followed that up with Brian McKnight’s “Back At One.” Members of the audience were singing along to the classic 90’s R&B song while clapping and waving their arms back and forth to the beat.

Now it came down to the audience. They were to decide who was going to become the next Post Idol and open up for Spring Fling talent, Miguel. It was a close race as both per- formers captured the audience but Manning took the title.

“I thought it was a great event and the crowd participation was awesome. The competition was neck and neck which made the event more dramatic,” said senior Broadcasting major, Nick Ciborowski.

Marissa Lando, also a senior Broadcasting major, agreed saying, “All the finalists were really so talented. Stephanie has such a powerful and unique voice that is definitely hard to come by. And Josh has a warmth and power and energy behind his singing that is just so enjoyable to listen to. I would go to the Miguel concert just to see him open.”

After the win, Manning said, “It’s cool, I’m excited and a little bit intimidated to open up for Miguel because he’s a super star.” When it came to his competitors he said they were both great; he loved Meredith’s performance and Eso was very energetic. As for what he plans on singing to open up for the Spring Fling concert, he has no clue. He asked readers to send him any suggestions! You can hear Manning’s pipes again at the Miguel Concert on April 20 in the Tilles Center.