Voting Starts Today

Voting for the finals in the Mormon Times contest starts today. There are 12 finalist - Me of course, Brandon Osmond (Donny's son), Due West, Shaun Barrows, Ryan Innes, Aaron Southerland, Maati Maile, Nicole Sheahan, Maxine Soakai, Poli Hala, Truman and Barry Hansen. Every artist is very talented, so the competition is pretty strong. Voting will continue for 2 weeks and the top 6 continue on to the final round of voting which runs March 3 - March 10th. The top 6 contestants will perform at a concert at the Covey Center for the Arts in Provo on March 19th and the winner recieves $5000. Tickets for that event are on sale now, but I have no idea who will be performing. They will not be showing a tally of the votes, the finalists will be announced on the final day of voting. I guess that's good for me, I won't feel like a total loser when I only have 5 votes, no one will even know! I would love to make it to the final round and be able to perform at the concert, but we will see what happens. This has been a great opportunity to share my music with a wider audience, and it's provided some great publicity. In fact, there is an article about me and my music in the Mormon Times news this week. You can read the article here: http://www.mormontimes.com/arts_entertainment/music/?id=6164 I seriously don't remember saying most of those things, but I'm sure I was nervous! To vote for my video, you can follow this link: http://music.mormontimes.com/contest.php?id=756&nocache=1

I'm a Semi-Finalist!

Thanks everyone for all your votes in the mormon times showcase contest. I have made it into the semi-finals. You can click here to check out the showcase:

http://music.mormontimes.com/contest.php?id=756

Here is part of the article that was in the newspaper...

Shaun Barrowes, Due West, Brandon Osmond and Amy Van Wagenen have emerged as the first four semifinalists in MormonTimes.com's "Showcase," the free online music video contest. They were the top four in the voting that began Nov. 15 and ended at midnight Monday.

"The talent is incredible," said Bob Wood, Mormon Times' marketing director. He said there were 52 entries in "Showcase," and 108 artists have uploaded music to the site so far. Barrowes, of Spanish Fork, made it to the final 48 in the seventh season of "American Idol" and has released a jazz/pop CD titled "Big Bang Theory." Due West, a country trio, is made up of Matt Lopez of Wyoming, Tim Gates of Utah and Brad Hull of Arizona. They have been part of the Nashville club scene since 2004. Brandon Osmond, of Orem, is the son of Donny Osmond and has been writing songs since high school, He served an LDS mission to Scotland. Amy Van Wagenen, of Salt Lake City, is the mother of four children and just recently returned to making music now that her children are older. Their videos will be on the Showcase Web site through the next rounds of voting. The second round of voting will run through Jan. 15, and the third round will run from Jan. 16 through Feb. 15. The four semifinalists from those rounds will join Barrowes, Due West, Osmond and Van Wagenen for the final voting, which will run Feb. 16 through March 1. Musicians who have the top six videos at the end of final voting will be featured at a live concert in March 19 at 7:30 at the Covey Center for the Arts in Provo. The top vote-getter, who will win a $5,000 first prize, will be announced at the concert. Second prize will be $2,000 and third prize will be $1,000.

Switching to Blogspot

I have officially joined blogspot. I originally had my blog on my website, but I wanted to link up to other blogs and sites, so I moved. Moving is hard work! Just one more site that I have to figure out.

Life is Funny

So, I'm entering a contest on mormontimes.com. I have to make a video and then people will vote for it. The winner gets a cash prize and a chance to perform at a concert - fun! My husband has been helping me put it together and it's been really funny. Everything seems so contrived! We laugh a lot. We are doing it to the song "Tiny Graces" and my kids will be in it - which they absolutely love. It's been a challenge to get them to act naturally. They aren't normally that sweet:) We'll see how it turns out, after all it didn't cost me a dime. It is what it is!
Also, I must have the coolest family ever. My parents are so great. I get my sense of humor from my mom and my freckles from my dad. Thanks dad! I think my dad alone has purchased 30 copies of my cd. He passes them out to all his friends. So cute! And every time my mother goes into Deseret Book, she makes sure that my cd is facing out, so that everyone can see it. She's in there a lot, and I'm sure it makes the clerks crazy, but I'm not complaining at all! More power to her. My mom had hip replacement surgery this week. I called to check on her the day she came home from the hospital and she said the funniest things, fortunately she probably won't remember, but it made me laugh, which is my favorite thing to do!

I'm Like the Wind

I have decided that I'm not the best blogger. It's tough putting words on a page. It seems so permanent - even though I have the authority to edit at any time! However, I am a very sarcastic person. But my sarcasm never seems to come across quite as funny in print as it does in person. Maybe it doesn't come across very well in person either, I don't know. But I can't use any inflections to tell my story - or my hands - which I use quite frequently! Therefore, I'm always concerned about what I write and how people will take it. Plus, I'm always changing my mind. For instance, I decided to cancel my trax adds that I had scheduled for December. I decided I could spend my money elsewhere - not on new jeans - but in other areas of advertising. Although I must admit, a girl can never have enough jeans, right! I hope I am making the right decisions, this is a tough business and I'm a novice, but I'll just keep pluggin' away and hopefully I get something right! I just have to remember to be flexible, thank heaven for Yoga! See... the sarcasm again. I just can't help myself. I better stop while I'm ahead.

The "Waiting" is over

I now have thousands of cd's in my possession and soon I hope they will be in your possession. I signed a deal this week for distribution with Sounds of Zion. The cd's will be on the shelf at Deseret Book and Seagull Book and Tape, or wherever LDS books are sold, October 6th, the day after conference. Listen for my adds on FM100. They will run every Sunday, through December. Also, we changed our adds on the trax trains. My big mug will be on the trains the whole month of December. So if you go downtown to see the lights on Temple Square, try to refrain from drawing a mustache on me!

I'm Finally Finished - I Think!

Well, I think I am finally done with my cd and all I have left is to figure out a way to sell it! It will be available in October at Seagull Book and Tape, or you can buy it or download it here on my website. We are trying to focus our marketing around conference weekend, so my big face will be on the trax trains that run North to South the whole month of October. I can't tell you how excited I am about that - not! There's nothing better than a giant picture of yourself plastered on the side of a train to humble you just a bit. We are also running ads on FM100 every Sunday, so listen for those. How exciting, huh!!

I think the coolest part of this project was having my children sing on the album. Their cute little voices are on "Shower the People" and it sounds adorable. There is nothing better than the sound of children singing, especially when it's your own. It was great to let them see where I have been spending so much of my time.