Montgomery College Talent Show, a highly anticipated annual SGA-led event 13 years in the running, recently occurred at Montgomery College Rockville Campus. All of the excitement took place at the Robert E. Parilla Performing Arts Center (PAC), from 6 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. on March 27th, 2025.
Singer Sets the State for Act One
Starting the show from “Act One” was a lovely performance by Thabisa Dube, who sang a song called “Running” by Beyonce.
Despite the audience’s quiet reaction towards Thabisa’s performance, her cover of Beyonce impressed one of the judges. The talent show judge panel featured Interim Chief Equity and Inclusion Officer Kimberly Jones, Director of Strategic Alliances Angela Rhoe, and Student Engagement Program Coordinator Roger Rosen.
“One of the things I would say is ‘don’t be afraid’, to walk around the stage. Utilize your stage a little bit more, and it’s literally the only critique I have. I love your tone, I loved your pitch, loved your hair! I think you did an amazing job, so great job for starting us off.” – Interim Chief Equity and Inclusion Officer Ms. Kimberly F. Jones expressed, giving out critique on Thabisa’s performance.
After that performance, second contestant Krisha Kalyan Kumar did a dance which was heavily inspired by her Indian culture.
The way she mesmerized us from her outfit to her Indian dance was magnificent, and I think both the crowds and the judges thought so as well.
“This is fantastic. We could see your stage presence when you entered in the dark. We saw you; you took the stage, and it was absolutely glorious. Also, I love performers. There were some things that fell off of your costume, either earring or something. Didn’t throw you, you didn’t do anything! You did what performers do.” – Student Engagement Program Coordinator, Mr. Roger Rosen expressed.
The last contestant from Act One to perform was a male student named Payton O’Keefe who sang a cover of “Children of Eden”.
Act Two Features a Rapper
Now starting off “Act Two” was our very own member of the Advocate, Kyle Meister, performing his song, “Collider” (French trans: ‘Necklace’).
While at first, he was slow to start, he managed to captivate the viewers with his performance. The amount of excitement I heard from the audience on the left row was astounding, with the way he was able to give them the reason to be invested.
“Your engagement with this crowd! Were you rapping in French?” – Ms. Angela Rhoe wondered, being amazed by Kyle’s performance.
The fourth contestant, Kyle, was asked by Ms. Rhoe about the meaning of the intro behind “Collier”.
“I said, ‘I wrote this song for you grandma, je’taime’. My grandmother passed away two years ago. I know you are with my grandfather John-Jaq Sean, and then the rest goes: ‘Sorry, mom, French is not my native language. Sorry to you both, mom and dad, for when I first came in the U.S., I had a lot of problems in school. I got into fights; I was really hard person to teach. And I’m sorry that when I was young, I was stubborn. Actually, that hasn’t changed.’ I just said ‘je’taime, mama, papa, love you both, and Jeannie is the name of my grandmother.” – Kyle explains, expanding on the details of the inspiration behind “Collier”.
While paying close attention to the judges, the sound of applaud and cheers were hard to ignore.
“Thank you so much for sharing your story. Your grandmother is looking down, just very proud. Yeah, that was very beautiful. I love how you used the stage. I will say that you got more excited when this crowds started getting involved, so that whole thing came out of your shell, so I just paid attention to that. You don’t need a crowd; you can do it yourself too, right? I love the song; I thought it was very catchy. Just be careful to stay on the beat.” – Ms. Kimberly Jones openly expressed.
Observing the amount of attention he got, it was great. After that exhilarating performance, fifth contestant female student, named Madison Veld took the stage with a cover of “Creep” by a band called, ‘Radiohead’.
After witnessing Madison Veld’s performance, the last singer of the second act, Maren Lewis, performed “At Last” by Etta James, and it got everyone’s attention.
Her rendition of “At Last” by Etta James kept everyone, including myself mesmerized, and the judges definitely believed it too.
“That was so beautiful. I don’t even know when to start. Let me start by saying, ‘You look beautiful!’. You remind me of a 1950 star, and when you came out, you were there. You did this with your eyes and a smile, and you commanded the entire room. You didn’t have to move! Your runs are gorgeous, and that is such a difficult song to sing. These runs! You just hit every note; you are amazing!” – Ms. Kimberly F. Jones gushed, blown away by Maren’s vocals.
Equally mesmerized by Maren’s entire performance, another judge named Ms. Angela Rhoe, who is the Director of Strategic Alliances, chimed in.
“You’re just standing there, with all your glamour, and you’re like, ‘I’m about to give it to you’, and you gave it to us! Your stage presence is unbelievable, your voice. Are you that same person that I have met backstage? Let me tell you something, I don’t even know what else to say, I am shaking! Right then, to my core, that voice! I am shaking, right now! My goodness, thank you.” – Ms. Angela Rhoe passionately rant, giving so much enthusiasm about the “At Last” performance.
After witnessing three great performances from the second act, it was clear that Montgomery College really got talent. Continuing the show, our seventh contestant came on, performing a medley which include “Killing Me Softly with His Song” by Lauryn Hill.
Guitarist Performs in Act Three
After that, we got a guitarist performing. Our eighth contestant and another Advocate member, Nijat Sharifov, blew everyone away with his guitar.
“You gave us so much! You were like, ‘let me show you what I can do in amount of time’, so I am interested in what else you can do. You are very talented, almost like watching a painter painting a beautiful masterpiece. That was just great. I loved how you switched it up, because at the beginning, I was like, ‘okay’, and then you were like, ‘here I go, I’m in my element’. And then, you brought us back to this calm nature, we were pulled down. This was amazing, I loved everything about it.” – Ms. Kimberly Jones stated complimenting Nijat’s entire performance.
Despite being the last act of Act Three, Nijat left quite an impression, noticing how hyped and amazed everyone was towards his guitar playing.
Agreeing with Ms. Kimberly Jones’s comment, Student Engagement Program Coordinator, Mr. Roger Rosen shares his opinion.
“Thank you for sharing your story, because we felt it. You’re self-taught, I have never taught myself a thing in my life, I don’t understand how people can do that. That’s remarkable! And the fact that you taught yourself how to do that, thank you. – Mr. Roger Rosen says, giving props to Nijat.
Act Four Includes Singing and Dancing
Entering Act Four, Christopher Lloyd, a student who works at the SGA, took the stage by storm with a medley of Chris Brown. Starting the performance with a choreography of Chris Brown’s song “Wall to Wall,” his background dancers got the audience hooked.
Witnessing the reaction towards Christopher singing Chris Brown song, “Forever”, it was clear the audience enjoyed every minute of it.
“You were great! Your stage presence, the dancers! You dance, you sing, that smile! The whole production, these fans. That was beautiful.” – Ms. Angela Rhoe gushed.
Christopher’s performances of both “Wall to Wall” and “Forever” by Chris Brown absolutely amazed everyone. After such a hyped experience, our 10th contestant went on stage as ‘MC Ritmo’, dancing.
The last performance of the night was by Cyrus Francis who did a cover of “New York, New York” by Frank Sinatra.
Apparently, the song “New York, New York” was a dedication to the Class of 2025 who are graduating this Spring.
Winners Announced
All great things must come to an end, but the talent show was definitely a moment to remember, with the tremendously talented acts they picked. Maren Lewis from Act Two won first place, while Nijat Sharifov from Act Three got second, and Thabisa Dube was third.
