Freshman takes 'Idol' title

Freshman Matt Schuerman played two songs on his guitar Thursday night to capture the title of "Teter Idol," a musical competition held in Teter Quad based on the hit Fox show, "American Idol."\nSchuerman was announced the winner of "Teter Idol" Sunday evening. He won with 146 votes out of 438. With the title of Teter Idol, Schuerman wins 10 free studio hours at Echo Park Studios, which co-sponsored the event, to record his demo.\nHe will also be promoted by the music committee of the Business Career and Entertainment Club. The music committee is discussing having an event before Little 500 to showcase Schuerman's talent. The committee wants to help promote his demo, and it will have a meeting sometime next week to discuss this matter, said Kimberly Kindred, Teter Residential Assistant and co-coordinator, along with Kimberli Owens. \nSchuerman is now automatically one of the 10 finalists for "Hoosier Idol," which takes place Monday, April 21 at 7:30 p.m. at the IU Auditorium.\n"Teter Idol" was a chance for musical performers to showcase their talent and ability to a panel of judges, friends and fans.\n"I have a band and we haven't been able to play, so this (Teter Idol) is sort of my outlet," Schuerman said.\nFinals began at 9 p.m. Thursday at Teter Quadrangle. The finals brought in a big crowd waiting for the competition to begin.\nThe event was hosted by former Teter President Lorenza Jara. The judges for the finals were Resident Manager Cedric Harris, Teter Secretary Brandi Boswell, junior Chris Grooms, sophomore John Glover and senior Stephanie Matthews.\nThe finalists had to prepare two songs to perform Thursday night. One song had to be a song from a movie soundtrack, and the second song was the performer's choice.\nThe performers had to draw numbers twice to find the order in which they would perform.\nTeter residents had two opportunities to audition for "Teter Idol" at preliminaries. Auditions for preliminaries were held for all Teter residents on Sunday, March 30 and Tuesday, April 1.\nEighteen residents were chosen from Sunday and Tuesday's preliminary rounds to advance on to the semi-finals on Thursday, April 3.\n"Teter Idol" finalist, freshman Patrick Luce, is a big fan of the Fox show and was excited about trying out for "Teter Idol." It was as close to trying out for the real show as he could get.\n"Well, I wanted to audition for 'American Idol,' but I couldn't, so this is the next closest thing," Luce said.\nThe semi-finals held on April 3 narrowed the competition down to 10 contestants for Thursday's finals.\nThe final contestants were very excited about making it to the last stage of the auditions.\n"I thought it was awesome (making it to finals)," Luce said. "It's a great feeling to know that people you don't even know are rooting for you."\n"Teter Idol" finalist Freshman Dan Reisen was the first contestant to perform. His first song was "When You Say Nothing At All," by Allison Krauss. Reisen said he chose the song because he thought it complimented his voice and would be a crowd pleaser.\n"A lot of people like that song, and I knew that people would enjoy it," Reisen said.\nFive more performers followed Reisen.\nLuce chose to write an original song for the performer's pick.\n"I tried writing one of my own songs to help (with votes)," Luce said. "Hopefully the audience is feeling me."\nThe judges found themselves in a room filled with unhappy fans. Many times throughout the semi-finals and finals, the judges were booed for their comments toward the performers.\n"They were booing us (the judges) and they just don't understand what it's like to be a judge," Owens said. "One kid came up to me and said 'you really hurt my feelings.' It's all constructive criticism."\n"Teter Idol" finals ended around 10:45 p.m. and voting ended an hour afterward. \nSchuerman was indecisive about trying out for "Teter Idol" when auditions were first announced.\n"I decided last minute (to join)," Schuerman said. "I auditioned the Tuesday after the first audition"