On February 1st, Heritage High School hosted their annual talent show! Every year, many students look forward to the opportunity to showcase their talents to their fellow classmates, whether that be singing, dancing, or even drawing, and every year the acts get better and better. Many familiar faces graced the stage this year, as well as some new ones, each act capturing the audience in it’s own unique way. The MCs of the performance were Alex Frost, Nathan Minton, and Talon Polley. 

The show began with back-to-back singing performances, with Alex Frost playing the guitar and singing “Night Moves” and Riley Cochran-Boyd singing “Home” from “The Whiz.” Will Faulkner then demonstrated his amazing art skills, after which the last-minute addition of Sra. Taylor and Sra. Petteys’ Spanish 4 and AP Spanish class demonstrated their awe-inspiring dance moves. Following that, the crowd enjoyed the musical stylings of Julia Petteys and Gunter Hullander as they sang “Like I’m Going to Lose You,” along with Avery Frost and Anna Rowan performing their rendition of “Diane.” Next in the line-up was everybody’s favorite student band, Sinkhole, performing “Just the Two of Us” (with lead vocals by Anna Rowan) and “Santeria” (lead vocals by Gunter Hullander). They always manage to be a real crowd pleaser. Other acts included Payton Reece and Ryan Dowis singing “Stupid with Love” from “Mean Girls”; Brylee Hutton channeling her inner T-Swift while performing “All Too Well”; Alex and Avery Frost making their second appearance, singing “You Are Not Alone”; and Caleigh Jackson performing “Make You Feel My Love.” Julia Petteys also returned to the stage to sing “It’s Time,” accompanied by her guitar, then Cadin Minjarez serenaded the crowd like a real Sinatra, performing “Fly me to the Moon.” 

The performance that really stole the show, though, was none other than the boy band “Them,” consisting of Grant Moore, Alex Frost, Nathan Minton, and Parker Taylor. The boys choreographed an entire dance routine to the song “You Belong with Me,” and they stayed true to iconic Taylor fashion as they wore blonde wigs. Moore explained, “It was a very last-minute thing. We had a bunch of different songs we were trying to choose between. We thought ‘Ok, everyone is loving Taylor Swift right now so let’s do that.’” 

Following that, we received a blast from the past as Gage Howard sang “I’ll Take Love” by Elvis Presley. Next up, Kadyn Moore and Avery Frost gave the audience a Broadway-worthy performance of “For Good” from “Wicked.” Making his fourth appearance on stage, Alex Frost, along with his trusty guitar, played “How to Save a Life.” And, as always, the show closed with the iconic teacher band performing “Oh Atlanta,” “Islands in the Stream,” and “Thank You for Being a Friend,” in honor of Betty White. 

The head of the talent show, Ms. Wells, worked very hard to make sure this show was the best it could be this year. Looking back, “I think it went really well,” she stated. “Once it was over, I felt great about it,’ she said. “I definitely felt nervous going into it a couple of days before, especially this year, just because of scheduling and the way January happened made several acts drop.” She continued, noting that “it feels really good seeing how proud of themselves the kids are afterwards. They are certainly nervous because they are performing in front of a peer audience, which is really difficult to do. This year especially, I was really proud of the audience, because of the feedback that they gave the kids on stage. It was such a positive experience.” Overall, this year’s show was a big hit. Everyone who participated really put their all into their performances. It’s safe to say that here at Heritage High School we have a lot of talent!