{"id":8039,"date":"2014-09-10T13:28:24","date_gmt":"2014-09-10T17:28:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=8039"},"modified":"2014-09-17T15:02:08","modified_gmt":"2014-09-17T19:02:08","slug":"8039","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/8039\/","title":{"rendered":"Jessica and Shannon fly the flag for Aurora at this Friday\u2019s Showdown final"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Brock Weir<\/strong><\/p>\n

As 17-year-old Jessica Joerges hit the stage Saturday at Aurora\u2019s Ribfest, the dull roar of the thousand-strong crowd hit a crescendo.<\/p>\n

Several friends, family and supporters hustled to the stage, armed with signs \u2013 and very little shyness \u2013 to cheer on their girl as one of the 20 semi-finalists in the 2014 Hoedown Showdown.<\/p>\n

Although it was clear through her rendition of Lady Antebellum\u2019s \u201cAmerican Honey\u201d that her voice alone would be enough to carry the day, her cheering squad didn\u2019t hurt and, by Saturday evening, Jessica was named one of 10 finalists in the competition, and one of only two Aurora residents, set to take the stage this Friday, September 12, in the Hoedown Showdown Finals. <\/p>\n

Featuring headliner Tim Hicks, Friday\u2019s event will showcase a wide array of local, up-and-coming country talent from across York Region and Southern Ontario. The ultimate winner will be crowned Friday, winning, among other prizes, the chance to sing in front of the thousands due to descend on Aurora on Saturday for the Wild, Wild West Hoedown, hosted by Magna International. <\/p>\n

Shannon Beresford, who wowed the crowds with Miranda Lambert\u2019s \u201cMama\u2019s Broken Heart\u201d, will also represent Aurora on stage.<\/p>\n

As the local duo posed for pictures after being named to the top 10, Jessica was almost at a complete loss for words.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am so happy, I am going to cry!\u201d said Jessica. \u201cI have already picked my song [for Friday], so I am just going to keep working at it. I watched what other people can do, so I am going to apply that to what I should be doing. Everyone was phenomenal. All my friends and family came out!\u201d<\/p>\n

The Top 20 singers performed throughout the afternoon before three judges \u2013 country singer Chris Seldon, businesswoman \u2013 and former Newmarket-Aurora MP \u2013 Belinda Stronach, and Steve Hinder of Magna for Community. While Mr. Seldon and Mr. Hinder were on hand for the first round of auditions, this was the first time Ms. Stronach had heard the Top 20 \u201clive\u201d and she was wowed by what she heard.<\/p>\n

\u201cI was really impressed with the 20 that performed today,\u201d she told The Auroran. \u201cI think the talent was really strong. As judges, we had a hard time making a decision because they are all terrific. What we heard today was perhaps even stronger overall than the previous year. I hope that means the Hoedown Showdown is getting more recognition. Great talent is coming out!\u201d<\/p>\n

Working through a checklist of criteria, Ms. Stronach said she agreed with Mr. Seldon\u2019s assessment that performances such as these are all about having fun.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a can you entertain people, are they dancing and singing along, and does it make you want to grab a beer and have a good time?\u201d said Ms. Stronach. \u201cWe listen to the quality of the artists, their technical ability, but also the way that they kind of get into the song. Do they make it their own? Can they inspire others? Are they having a great time?\u201d<\/p>\n

Looking over the massive crowds that evening, Ms. Stronach added she thought the audience was bigger than in 2013 and while many came for the ribs, many still stuck around for the talent.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is just a really good community event.\u201d<\/p>\n

For Mr. Hinder, who worked to revive the Showdown last year, the 2014 crop shows that the event is really taking hold in the community.
\n\u201cI have been involved in the planning of this event from the word go. I know the program we developed is incredible I know the program they are going to see that night, topped off with Tim Hicks as the headliner, is great.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tickets for Friday\u2019s Hoedown Showdown are $25. For more information on that, and Saturday\u2019s main event, visit www.hoedown.ca.\t<\/p>\n

\"The

The Hoedown Showdown Top 10 with judges Steve Hinder, Belinda Stronach and Chris Seldon. Auroran photo by David Falconer<\/p><\/div>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

As 17-year-old Jessica Joerges hit the stage Saturday at Aurora\u2019s Ribfest, the dull roar of the thousand-strong crowd hit a crescendo.<\/p>\n

Several friends, family and supporters…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":8027,"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_feature_clip_id":0,"_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-8039","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archive"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/s3D2k4-8039","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-09-08 10:07:12","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/09\/2014-09-11-06.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8039","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=8039"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8039\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8027"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8039"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8039"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8039"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}