Caleb entered a talent competition at part of WestFest in West Valley City. It is where they have a city wide celebration with booths and show and it's kind of like a fair with rides and games as well.
Last year he entered and won 2nd place, so he thought he'd audition again.
He decided he would do his fun Pirates song, so he auditioned and made it in the competition.
This time he was competing with 8 other talented youth. They were all girl singers, and one boy who played saxophone. We thought he had a pretty good chance of getting a prize, but then when we began hearing some of the older girls sing, we weren't too sure.
He knew this competition was a little different than just a piano competition. This was a talent competition that focused more on stage presence and originality than just the talent of the performance itself. So, Caleb got together a little skit to go before he actually played the piano.
Here is the video of what he did on stage before his piece:
He did pretty well, but these older girls were really talented. We were sure they would win. At the end, we told Caleb he probably wouldn't get anything, but he was young, and talent competitions were a little trickier than just piano competitions. He had fun performing and that's all that mattered.
The MC announced that they had ice cream gift cards for all the participants, so he was excited about that.
They had all the kids line up on stage before they announced the winners. We thought maybe he'd be lucky if he got 5th place or really lucky if he got 4th.
They began announcing the winners, and he didn't get 5th, and when he didn't get 4th, we figured, oh well, it was fun.....and we knew it was OK, because he was so excited about his ice cream.
We knew 1st place had to go to this awesome girl singer, but then they announced her as 3rd, hmmmm.
Then 2nd was another talented singer, and we looked on stage to try to figure out who they would have picked to be 1st, and we thought they already called the best performers, so we were stumped.
And then they called 1st Place "CALEB SPJUTE!!!"
Really, Caleb does really well, but we were surprised this time on a 1st Place win.
Here is the line up of winners:
Caleb was really happy and excited. (Mostly just for that ice cream!)
He got a nice certificate and a $100 prize! (Which he still didn't care about---he put it all in the bank, but when was he going to get ice cream???)
Caleb is a good humble kid, and he's a polite winner. He went around and told the other performers they did a good job and he thanked the judges.
We asked him if he thought he was going to win and he had the same thoughts. He said he thought maybe he would get 5th and if he was really lucky he might get 4th. Lucky boy! I'm glad he doesn't have a big headed attitude and expect to win competitions. He is always surprised and grateful to win anything and if not he is still always happy just to have come and performed.
Because he won the Junior Competition, they asked him to come back on Saturday to perform in a Winner's Showcase. He performed his Pirates once again, but then they asked him for an unexpected "encore" performance. He took off his Pirates hat and patch and played some of his jazzy piece he had played at his last recital. Here's a little clip of how fun he made it look:
What a fun time he had, and he's so excited to be able to put another certificate up on his wall. That, and of course the ice cream!
