Valley ‘Idol’ hopefuls make their pitch

By SEAN BARRON

news@vindy.com

NILES

Fifteen-year-old Sara Saverko usually reserves her singing voice for local competitions and her bedroom, but for close to a minute, the Eastwood Mall concourse was the setting for her vocal talents.

That’s because the Columbiana girl is hoping her voice will reach beyond those confines to the national stage.

Sara tried to make that happen Thursday when she gave an audience of a few hundred her rendition of the Bonnie Raitt song “I Can’t Make You Love Me.”

“I think Bonnie Raitt is a great artist,” said Sara, after making her appearance at Thursday’s “American Idol” audition at the mall.

The local audition, sponsored by Fox Youngstown, was one of many such competitions going on across the country in advance of the popular show’s 10th season, which starts in January. Sara was one of more than 100 local and regional performers hoping to finish at the top and advance to the next level.

The winner is to audition in front of “American Idol” producers next month in East Rutherford, N.J., and also will receive $400 for travel expenses, noted David Redig, assistant promotions director for Fox Youngstown.

Performers had 45 seconds each to impress a three-judge panel that judged them mainly on voice quality and stage presence, Redig explained. Hopefuls selected their choice from thousands of songs, he continued.

“Come Fly with Me,” a popular 1950s hit by Frank Sinatra, was the song Tyler Houston Oldham of Boardman chose that gave his voice an opportunity to soar.

Oldham, a 2009 Boardman High School graduate and student at the Cleveland Institute of Music, said that since age 5, he has loved Sinatra, Etta James, Dean Martin and other singers a generation or two before his. Oldham’s mother played a lot of music from artists of that time, which instilled in him a deep appreciation for that style of music, he said.

“I’m very much into the oldies; I’ve been enthralled with it all my life,” added Oldham, who’s studying opera. “I feel [my voice] is a gift from God, and I want to give it back to the world.”

Diversity was a theme that ran through the audition, with songs such as “Before You Walk Out of My Life” by Monica; “I’ll Stand By You,” Carrie Underwood; and “Been Awhile” by Staind. Other performers dipped into the songbooks of artists such as LeAnn Rimes, Alicia Keys, Celine Dion and Heart, to name a few.

Also hoping to make a vocal splash was 16-year-old Marisa Lima of Hermitage, Pa., who performed “Ain’t No Other Man,” a hit by Christina Aguilera, one of the most popular female singers of the mid- and late-1990s.

“I love Christina Aguilera; she’s such an inspiration to me. I listen to her on my iPod,” she explained.

Marisa, a Hickory High School junior, said she sings in church and has participated in local competitions, but this was the first time she had tried out for a national show. She was a bundle of nerves entering the stage, but quickly shook it off, Marisa added.

“I’d like to pursue a singing career and [singing is] something I think I’m good at,” said Marisa, who came with her mother, Cherri.

Twelve of Thursday’s contestants competed in a semifinals round, from which the final three were selected before the winner was announced, Redig said.