The evening ended in a recount with five winners instead of four

ATASCADERO — North County Has Talent was back for its third year on Friday, Aug. 9, on the Printery’s expanded and much-improved outdoor stage, which no longer looks like the skate ramp it’s made from. The talent, who came from all over, varied in age and entertainment. In fact, this was the first year that the talent show featured a 15-and-under age category and a 16-and-over category, with winners in both.

“We bring in a wonderful variety of local talent, both youth and adults, and it’s a great evening under the trees. It’s just a fabulous night,” said Printery Board President Karen McNamara.

The show kicked off with last year’s first-place winner, Julz Muya, performing her winning song “Macho Yako (Your Eyes)” for the crowd before wishing the evening’s competitors luck.

“A big thank you to everybody that’s here,” said Emcee Rick Evans. “The talent, the parents, the friends, everybody that’s supporting the Printery Foundation. Give yourself a big round of applause.”

There were five acts in the youth part of the show, including original songs, a harpist, dance, and singing. They kicked off the evening and performed in front of this year’s judges, returning world-renowned vocalists Kristina Prozesky and Jonathan Ritter, who has been all over the Broadway stage and even understudied Fiyero in “Wicked.” 

At the end of the night, when votes were tallied, sisters and best friends Juniper and Ivy Neumann, who both sang “Riptide” by Vance Joy and their original song, “Beautiful Hanna,” while Juniper played ukulele, won first place in the youth category and $200. 

“Honestly, I had no idea. I thought I wouldn’t even place,” Juniper said. “Honestly, I thought no way I wouldn’t place at all. Hearing my name come up first was such a shocker.”

“My heart was beating so fast, and I was so surprised,” added Ivy.

Their original song is about their friend’s mom, Hanna, who was recently diagnosed with ALS. Juniper said she was feeling sad about it and wrote the song in a day.

Second place and $100 went to Fine Arts Academy student Abbigail Hill for her vocal stylings of Billy Joel’s classic, “New York State of Mind.” She first heard the song on the TV show “Glee” and fell in love with it so much that she knew it was the song she wanted to perform.

“I didn’t even know I was going to place or anything like that,” Hill said. “It’s very nerve-wracking. I was nervous, but it was very exciting.”

The evening also brought another first in the form of a recount that took place after the night’s monetary prizes were given out to the adult winners. Judges Ritter and Prozesky found the chairperson for the talent show, Brenda May, and informed her of the mishap, but by then many of the winners had already left the event.

“I feel very pleased that they did that,” said May of the judges.

Originally, newlyweds of eight weeks Steffi and Justin McMillan received first place for their performance of Christina Perri’s “A Thousand Years,” which Steffi sang while Justin danced to accompany her. The couple met when they were paired together for the 2019 Atascadero Dancing with Our Stars.

Both were excited that they placed so highly that night, and after being notified of the mishap, the McMillans offered to return their $400 prize and receive their allotted $200 prize instead. 

Templeton High School students William Wallace and Ambrose Galaviz originally came away with second place and a monetary prize of $200 for their original and new single “Home.” The duo has been performing and writing music since they were in sixth grade and can be found on Spotify, Apple Music, and YouTube under the name Alamoth Music.

“Just want to say it was really fun being here, and I’m so glad we got to do this,” said Galaviz.

May stated that she had made the choice to make sure that Wallace and Galaviz got to keep the $200 they earned that night, putting them officially in third place.

First place and the $400 prize has since been officially awarded to 16-year-old Lucy Peterson, who performed a moving rendition of Billie Eilish’s “What Was I Made For?” from “Barbie.”

Peterson was notified of her win after the talent show was over and most everyone had left.

“It was bizarre. They walked up to me afterward with solemn looks on their faces, and once they had told me that because of an accident in the system [I had won]. I jumped up and down. I was like screaming. I was so excited,” stated Peterson. “It was amazing. It was almost reassuring in a way. I know that a lot of people can feel really down like I’m not talented because they didn’t win. My friends and my family really helped me realize that I was talented, so I wasn’t too bummed at the fact that I didn’t find out at first.”

Up next. Peterson will star as Anne Boleyn in Central Coast Theatre Company’s “Six the Musical: Teen Edition” on Sept. 6 and 7 at the Clark Center for the Performing Arts.

All the talent show’s prize money was generously donated by Atascadero City Councilmember Charles Bourbeau.

To find out more about the Atascadero Printery Foundation, go to atascaderoprintery.org.

Feature Image: Adult second-place winners Justin and Steffi McMillan (left) and third-place winners Ambrose Galaviz and William Wallace show off their winning certificates after the talent show. Photo by Rick Evans.