On Feb. 21, Jefferson’s Student Government Association (SGA) held the annual TJ’s Got Talent, with a prize of $100 for a solo or duo performance and $200 for a group performance. The talent show was judged by a panel of five faculty volunteer judges.
First-place winning talents included Huylam Le’s performance of “Abstruse Dilemma,” and “It Ain’t Me Babe” by juniors Amy Steinhardt, Diana Prudius and Karis Kim. The show had 19 total acts along with a special halftime parent performance.
“Last year, I didn’t win anything which I’m fine with,” Le said. “I just wanted to have fun. This year, I kind of didn’t expect it, so I was like, ‘I’ll take it. One hundred dollars for doing something I love to do is [awesome].’”
Le’s “Abstruse Dilemma” performance came from the rhythm game “Arcaea,” in which he experimented with different tactics before coming to the stage.
“I did it last year, so I just wanted to do it again,” Le said. “I noticed my cheers were in the gimmicky parts, which to a person who doesn’t play the game would seem unprecedented. I’ve been playing [‘Arcaea’] for about four years. A lot of the game technique is alternating between your left and right hands. That’s the hardest part.”
The showcased talents ranged from diabolo (Chinese yo-yo) performances to singing and dancing acts.
“I was surprised at the amount of singers this year because last year I remember most of them were dancing [or] doing a skit,” junior Nhi Nguyen said. “This year, [a majority] were all singing so that was really cool.”
A special halftime performance crafted by parents from the Parent Teacher Student Association (PTSA) featured a Zumba Monster, adding an energetic and entertaining break to the show.
“I liked all the performances,” junior Annie Yang said. “Every time you can see different performances, different things, there’s always something that is striking [to] you. This time they had the Zumba dance with the monster guy and that was really cool.”
Forty-six total students participated in the talent show, all with varying reasons for their participation in the talent show.
“This year, me and Annie [Yang] are both turning 17 and the song [‘17 Sai No Uta’] talks about high schoolers turning 17 and what the wonders about the future and what lies ahead of them,” Nguyen said.
For performers Nguyen and Yang it was more than the competition but a chance at expressing themselves freely.
“I wanted to try my best, to show my talent to others,” Yang said. “I also want to try to exceed myself from [being] an introvert to an extrovert. It definitely helped me to spread out my voice to others.”