With a new hair do, a fresh outfit, and her family in the auditorium to cheer her on, sophomore, Taylor Ramsey prepares for her performance on the Kansas City SuperStar stage, held annually at the Johnson County Community College in Yardley Hall. Standing tensely, she listens intently as the directors of the competition give their final tips and advice. Palms sweating, she shares a final laugh with fellow competitor and friend, Prince Russell Jackson from Wyandotte High School. And with her head held high, walks across the stage after she hears “Contestant number six, Taylor Ramsey.”

Kansas City SuperStar is a city-wide competition for high school students that have a passion for singing. Two hundred and fifty students auditioned, 24 students made it to the semifinals and 10 sang their way to the finals. Taylor Ramsey was one of them.

Ramsey is a sophomore with a passion for fashion and music. She’s been involved in music since the tender age of 4. Her mother is a significant influence on the kind of music Ramsey listens to and performs. Ramsey and her mother are heavily involved at their church, and also listen to R&B and the blues.

Kansas City SuperStar is Ramsey’s first singing competition. She stays calm and collected as she rehearses bits and pieces of her song choice, “Change is Gonna Come” by Sam Cook in choir class.

Music teacher, Elizabeth Mulkey, listens to her and gives her bits of critique as she sings. Ramsey was nervous to perform at Yardley Hall in a full auditorium, but she is beyond grateful for the opportunity to be able to showcase her talents with friendly competition, despite the results.

“This competition proves to me, I can do it. I can do anything I set my mind to,” Ramsey said.

As the lights went down at Yardley Hall the night of the competition, the room slipped into an anxious hush. The audience shifted in their seats, already anticipating the events to come. Yardley Hall could fit 1,341 people. Virtually every seat was filled. In a matter of seconds the room’s dark shroud was lifted as blue and red lights danced across the walls, the soft white glow of the spotlight highlighted the entertainers that graced the stage. The music came first. The opening note of “The Best Day” of my life was belted by KC Superstar Finalist, Maggie Marx. Then the voices exploded from the stage, a harmony of ten distinct sounds floated throughout the room. There was an audible noise as the audience members skirted to the edges of their seats, as necks craned to better see the artists that would soon blow their minds.

After the last note of the opening number died off, and the Jewish Community Center was acknowledged,Unfortunately, one young teenager never got his chance as a result of a vicious hate crime. Tragically on the first week of Superstar tryouts at the Jewish Community Center, a potential semifinalist maybe even a finalist was shot with a gun and killed by Frazier Glenn Cross, 73. Cross was a former Ku Klux Klan leader. Reat Underwood, was an ambitious freshman at Blue Valley High School with a heart for the theater arts. There was a scholarship for young adults in the performing arts at the competition started in Underwood’s name.

Marx opened up the individual competition with her rendition of Otis Redding’s “The Dock of the Bay.” All ten finalists sang well-known songs like Neyo’s “Let Me Love You.” Ramsey awed the crowd with her deep, rich, soulful tune of Sam Cook’s “Change is Gonna Come,” reminiscent of her ballad “I Know Where I’ve Been,” as Motormouth Maybelle in Sion’s production of “Hairspray” last spring. Kansas City’s own superstar Rob Riggle, known for roles in 21 and 22 Jump Street, Modern Family and the Hangover, hosted the event. But it wasn’t Riggle who captured the hearts of those in attendance, it was the performers.

Once the performers sang for their solo performances, all the esteemed Kansas City native judges from various backgrounds deliberated to pare down the 10 finalists to four. Unfortunately, Ramsey didn’t make it into the final four.

The audience was then told that their vote would decide the winner of the competition. And after the audience vote, 19-year-old Keith Kline, with his version of “Georgia On My Mind,” was the final winner and went home with $10,000 scholarship.

Strutting out of the backstage doors to greet her supporters, tears with a thousand emotions begin to flow from Ramsey’s shiny brown eyes.

“I’m just happy,” she said.

Ramsey embraced everyone that came to support her with a hug and a thank you. The competition was over. She will continue to sing and act. In fact, Ramsey plans to audition for the musical this fall, “Seussical.” To anyone who is considering trying out for any talent show or play:

“Go for it,” Ramsey said.