{"id":3817,"date":"2013-09-11T18:23:52","date_gmt":"2013-09-11T22:23:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=3817"},"modified":"2013-09-18T15:04:49","modified_gmt":"2013-09-18T19:04:49","slug":"hoedown-showdown-crowns-georginas-johnny-green","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/hoedown-showdown-crowns-georginas-johnny-green\/","title":{"rendered":"Hoedown Showdown crowns Georgina\u2019s Johnny Green"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Jeff Doner<\/strong><\/p>\n

The weather cleared up and the clouds parted for the conclusion of the Hoedown Showdown at the Aurora Ribfest on Sunday, where the final six competitors sang their hearts out in a bid to win first place.<\/p>\n

The winner of the competition will go on to perform at the Magna Hoedown celebration this Saturday to open for country star Terri Clark.
\nAfter whittling down 70 original applicants to 40 for the preliminary rounds, that number was cut in half to 20 to perform at Ribfest on Friday. Only six would go on to compete in the final round on Sunday afternoon.<\/p>\n

Smooth singer Johnny Green ended up taking the top prize earning praise from the judges throughout. He was the only male competitor in the top six.
\nGreen, 25, has been playing guitar and singing for years, but was nearly held speechless after the announcement was made.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am just so excited,\u201d he said. \u201cThe company that I was in was just wonderful today. All three of us, I had no idea who was going to win and everybody was just fantastic today and I\u2019m very pleased to have won in the company of everyone here.\u201d<\/p>\n

Originally from Queensville and now living in Willow Beach, Green started playing guitar when he was 16 and started to sing just a year or two after. He feels he has recently gotten away from his music a little bit with work, but the competition has put him back on track.<\/p>\n

\u201cI did the band thing for a while and I\u2019ve been working every since, so it\u2019s kind of nice to get back on stage and do this again,\u201d he said. \u201cAnd it\u2019s definitely one of the biggest [shows]. I actually played the opening of the Magna Centre years ago when I was 19, that was pretty big too, but this is definitely up there. My first big outdoor audience, that\u2019s for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still reeling from the win, he said sharing the stage with Terri Clark will be an honour.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m so excited. To play in that venue and in that environment will just be out of this world and a lot of fun. It\u2019s my dream and it\u2019s nice to get this recognition that will sort of help me put my focus back on to it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Aurora didn\u2019t have any competitors in the top three, but did have one in the top six that gave the competition a run for their money.
\nShannon Beresford was one of the final cuts in the competition and got the local crowd going with some catchy Shania Twain tunes.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s my idol. I grew up listening to her and every girl has that song that they sing to with their brush and a mirror. Shania was the girl that I sang most to.\u201d<\/p>\n

She said singing in front of a packed home crowd was a great feeling <\/p>\n

\u201cIt was awesome because I was the only one left from Aurora, so it was great to be in front of everyone here. My friends and family are here, so all the support has been awesome,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Beresford also learned to play guitar at 16 and said she has been singing her whole life.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy mom always says that I was singing before I could even talk. I have always loved to sing and my brothers play guitar and my dad is really musical, so I figured one day I would too.\u201d<\/p>\n

Even though she didn\u2019t get the exact finish she wanted, Beresford was thrilled to make it into the top six and marked the experience as one of a kind.
\n\u201cIt has been amazing. Everyone has been so supportive, humble and encouraging to each other. The judges have been so nice and everything has been just so well put together. It has just been an awesome experience.\u201d<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The weather cleared up and the clouds parted for the conclusion of the Hoedown Showdown at the Aurora Ribfest on Sunday, where the final six competitors sang their hearts out in a bid to win first place.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":3804,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3817","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archive"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/09\/2013-09-11-02.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-Zz","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-18 02:03:33","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3817","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3817"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3817\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3804"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3817"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3817"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3817"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}