Goldsboro girl in CBS talent search finals
By News-Argus Staff
Published in News on March 4, 2007 2:02 AM
From staff reports
An 11-year-old Goldsboro girl will find out this week whether she will get to sing live on national TV when the final round of the CBS Early Show's talent contest is held.
Madeline Edwards, a student at Eastern Wayne Middle School, was the first of three competitors to reach the final round. She has been waiting for weeks for the other performers to be selected by viewers voting online.
Madeline, the daughter of Michael and Kelli Edwards, is an aspiring opera singer whose submitted video of her rendition of "O Mio Babbino Caro," from an opera by Puccini earned her victories through the first two rounds of competition against talented young people from across the country.
Her video will be re-broadcast on Monday's Early Show, along with those by a Raleigh girl, 8-year-old Katherine Fritsch, who sang the "Star-Spangled Banner," and a rock band made up of 12- and 13-year-olds from Coweta, Okla., called "Crooked X," who performed a song they wrote entitled "Death of Me."
Voters can cast ballots for their favorite performer online by going to www.cbsnews.com and clicking on The Early Show, then on "Living Room ... Live! Kids."
Michael Edwards said that CBS officials told him that the winner would perform March 13. The show has been announcing all along that the winner would be invited to New York City to appear live on the morning program.
Madeline earned 75 percent of the votes to win in her first round. She garnered 42 percent of the votes to take the second round and become the first to reach the finals.
Another local girl, Samantha Casey, 10, a student at St. Mary School, competed in the early rounds but did not advance. Samantha is well known in the area for her fiddle-playing.
For the past three months, The Early Show has been airing excerpts from three videos selected by the show's producers as the best/funniest/most outrageous of those submitted by viewers.
Voting ends Wednesday at noon.