Fame talent search finds finalist at Six Flags in Arlington

by Caitlyn Buckley

ARLINGTON — A happy state of shock overtook 17-year-old Georgia Napolitano from Austin on Sunday, who was crowned the winner of the Fame National Talent Search at Six Flags Over Texas. She kept repeating, “I can’t believe it,” and promised to wear better shoes to the finals, as that was the judges’ only criticism of her.

Georgia will move on with six other finalists (which were chosen from other Six Flags locations) to compete in the final competition September 5.

The 10 semi-finalists in the competition that took place Sunday at Six Flags in Arlington ranged in age from 14 to 26 and included two dancers and eight singers. They were narrowed down from dozens who tried out on Saturday at the preliminary auditions.

Before the show, Six Flags employee Chelsea Glover told us, “Everyone’s very talented. We have one 4th grade teacher whose mom convinced her to enter while they were here for fun, we have some young kids, and one guy even came out from California.”

The judges for this competition were Brother Van from KSCS, Kelli Finglass, the director of the Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders, and Kitty Carter, the owner of Kitty Carter Dance Factory. They took turns judging each contestant, with Brother Van playing the role of the kinder, “Paula Abdul” type judge.

The ladies’ judging style seemed to be inconsistent, as they would vary from nastily nitpicking what the girls chose to wear and ripping on the hip-hop dancer for “vibrating” instead of dancing to gushing over how handsome two of the boys were. (Truly -- after nearly reducing the 15-year-old dancer to tears by ripping apart her choice in wardrobe, they told the male contestant that he was a “tall drink of water” and that if singing didn’t work out for him, he should be a model.) This was a talent competition, though, so even though the tone was occasionally snippy, all the comments served to weed out competitors until they found their top pick.

After 10 impressive performances that kept the audience cheering and applauding, the judges left the stage to deliberate and Naturi Naughton, star of the remake of the movie Fame came out to wow the crowd by singing the well-known title song. Her voice was beautiful and powerful, but there were moments that it seemed as though she was lip-synching and getting a little off track.

The judges returned with an envelope containing the finalist’s name and a giant mock ticket to the finals to present to him or her. A shocked Georgia was picked for wowing the audience with her rendition of “Fallin’” by Alicia Keys.

After the announcement of Georgia’s win, audience member Kelsey McGonigle said, “All the contestants were fantastic and very charming. While she was one of the best, Georgia wasn’t the only one who deserved to go to the finals.”

Georgia will perform at the finals at Six Flags Magic Mountain in California on September 5 and try for the chance to win $5,000, a photo spread in OK! Magazine, a trip to Los Angeles, a meet-and-greet with a studio executive and top talent agent, gift cards from Sephora and Johnny Rockets, and have her winning performance on the Fame DVD.