Given today's ever-increasing popularity of realty television,
it seems the surge of talent shows offering everyday people
the chance at being a star is taking on tidal wave proportions.
Adding the Internet into the mix, it's clear a new era
of being "discovered" has dawned and David Leapard, professor
of marketing technology at Eastern Michigan University,
is catching the wave.
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SONG IN MY HEAD: David Leapard, a professor
of
marketing technology, is hoping to reach the
Top
10 round in FameCast.com, an online
talent
competition. Leapard's entry, "You Never
Even Call
Me By My Name," is in the country category.
Leapard
is hoping for enough Internet votes to
advance.
|
Leapard, a country singer since childhood, is competing
on FameCast.com, an online talent competition now in its
third season.
Competitions are conducted on a dozen FameCast "stages" —
rock, pop, hip hop R&B, singer-songwriter, comedy,
electronic, spiritual, country, Latin, dance, spoken word,
and film & animation — with
the winner from each stage taking home $10,000 in prize
money.
"While all of my music up until now has been cover songs,
a goal of mine has always been to cut an original album
in Nashville. The $10,000 (award) would permit me to do
that," said Leapard, who is competing in the contest for
the first time
Leapard grew up in Greenville S.C., where he performed
on early morning country music radio.
"I had a 'stage aunt' who would get me up at 5 a.m. and
take me to sing on 'The Bob Poole Show,'" said Leapard,
who cites Elvis Presley and Conway Twitty as early musical
influences. "It was a lot of fun."
His entry, "You Never Even Call Me By My Name," written
by Steve Goodman and released by David Allen Coe in 1975,
is said by many to be the perfect country song. Complete
with cryin' and fightin', drinkin' and prison, and trucks
and trains, the twangy ditty also has been performed by
modern artists like Kenny Chesney, Uncle Kracker and Hootie & The
Blowfish, and is a perennial favorite in karaoke bars and
honkey tonks around the world.
Winner of several karaoke contests, including one garnering
him a recording contract with Big Mamma Recording Studio
in Seymour, Tenn., Leapard recently released his third
CD, entitled, "Contemporary Country Classics 3."
To enter a FameCast competition, artists upload
a performance video online. If they do not have a video,
artists can attend one of several casting calls throughout
the country where FameCast will record the video for free.
Viewers vote through the Web site, with the top 50 artists
progressing through a series of rounds until a winner is
chosen. Some artists submit stationery camera footage of
karaoke performances; others have videos professionally
produced.
Viewers may vote for as many artists as they wish, but
may only cast one vote per artist, per day.
With the exception of film and animation submissions,
advancing contestants must submit a new video when they
reach the Top 10 round. Each stage has its own voting deadline.
Voting to determin the top 10 contestants ends at Tuesday,
Nov. 6, at noon.
The final five contestants from each stage will be flown
to Austin, Texas, in December to compete in FameCast Five,
where the winner from each stage will be dubbed a FameCast
Fenom.
On stage, Leapard is known as "Distillery Dave," in
reference to The Distillery, a Toledo bar, restaurant and
entertainment venue where Leapard regularly performs.
Consistently ranking between ninth and 12th place
during the final weeks of voting, Leapard knows his road
to Austin can only be paved by the viewers.
"If I can just make it to Austin, that would be an accomplishment," Leapard
said. "The decision is made totally from the online votes.
That's the power of the Internet."
