Worth the trip

As her mom wiped tears from her eyes, Lexie Gilson looked out on a crowd of over 700 cheering fans, many giving her a standing ovation. The  17-year-old Mifflintown singer had just wowed the crowd with her rendition of the  "I Have Nothing," a song made popular by Whitney Houston.

​Gilson gave the final regular performance of the 14th annual Taste of Talent vocal competition Sunday evening. 

---

It seemed obvious by the crowd's reaction that the vote tallying would just a formality and Gilson would soon be announced as the 2023 Taste of Talent champion.

Gilson began her Taste of Talent journey a couple months ago when she sent in her audition and application materials for a competition she thought was in Franklin Township, a town not so far away from her home. When she was accepted as one of the elimination contest's 12 competitors, she and her mom, Bonita, still hadn't realized it was a different Franklin three hours away.

 But they committed to do it and they didn't look back.

"Once we figured it out, I looked at mt mom and was like, 'what do you want me to do? I don't want to make you drive three hours if you don't want to,' but she has always taught me that once you commit to something there's no going back," Gilson said. "So we drove three hours for six weeks." 

​It was worth the trip.

Gilson knew if she was going to be in the competition she had to prepare several songs just in case she did make it to the finals. "I had sticky notes posted (indicating) I would sing this and this and this..." she said. Saving the Whitney Houston song for last was intentional and the crowd appeared to appreciate that she did.

Each week she would prepare a new song, but singing them all while keeping to a practice schedule careful not to wear out her voice, she said. On Saturday, after being named one of the four finalists, Gilson still had two songs to polish for her final day, but she and her mom stayed over in Franklin in a hotel. She didn't rehearse her final two songs that night, but on Sunday they asked the hotel staff if it would be allowed to practice in the room. "After everybody left, they let me sing," she said.

Whatever she did to prepare worked. Her first song of the night, "Can't Help Falling in Love," had folks singing along and her final song just knocked people's socks off.

The Juniata High School senior thanked Franklin for their kindness and support right from the start. "It was just my mom and I and I know we didn't vote me through." 

"I'm just so proud," her mom said. "She has worked so hard. Even over COVID she kept taking voice lessons over the computer and she practices all the time. This is what she just loves."

During the semi-final round, Lexie got a little emotional telling the crowd that she decided to be a musical theater major in college to follow her dreams, hoping to go to Penn State. After the standing ovation on Sunday, one of the contest judge's Tammi Dahl Matthews told her "Let this be your flag that you're headed in the right direction."

The other 2023 finalist were Alexander Karg, Ruth Herrick and Alexis Jack. 

The weather held off for the final despite the forecast of rain. This year's event was bittersweet as each week the competition's founder Ronnie Beith was remembered. Often they spoke about sense of family and community that Beith embodied. The show's emcee Randy Moorehead, a past winner himself summed it up  after Gilson won.  "You are now one of us."

Taste of Talent winners
2010 Lyric McCommons
2011 Kevin Downey
2012 Rachel Mellor and Hunter Cook
2013 Lauren Snyder
2014 Nathaniel Licht
2015 Bailey Jones
2016 Randy Morehead
2017 Lauren Skelley
2018 Connor Raymond
2019 Joey Lillard and Joni Zacherl
2020 Gloria Mancilla-Balog
2021 Ian Best and Scott Gressley
​2022 Kaleb Beichner
​2023 Lexie Gilson