Stars in their eyes at Bishop’s Stortford College

23 Apr 2013

It was that time of year again at Hertfordshire independent school Bishop’s Stortford College when a group of nervous Upper Fifth (year 11) and Sixth Form students sheepishly leave their own personalities behind, and take to the stage of the Leo Price Theatre, as their chosen famous Alter-Egos in the Senior School’s ‘Stars in their Eyes’ in support of the Niemann-Pick Research Foundation.

Since its launch in 2010, the talent show has seen an array of exciting and inventive superstars, and this year was no exception, with acts ranging from Beyonce to Christina Aguilera, from Gabrielle Aplin to One Direction.

This year saw a few changes to the mix; Ollie Radley stepped up to the plate and took on the role of our host for the evening, and certainly didn’t disappoint. He helped the whole show flow brilliantly, and interacted with the acts with confidence and humour. The host was joined this time by three judges to help guide the audience through the acts. Simon Cowell (Ollie George),Tulisa (Claire Devine) and Louis Walsh (Andrew Reynolds) were an excellent addition, full of witty remarks and killer comebacks and were useful to the audience while the latter made their decision as to who should take home the Stars trophy.

There was also a slight alteration to the rules. For the first time, Dance Groups competed and both ‘Variation’ and ‘Locked Out’ wowed audiences with their moves. ‘Variation’ even walked away as first runner up on both show nights.

Tina Turner (Nifemi Osiyemi) opened the show, and blew us away with her performance of ‘Proud Mary’, followed by acts such as Ben Howard, the Lumineers and Katie Perry- who even performed twice!

After a set of top notch performances on both nights, the audiences were left with the impossible task of whittling it down to just one winner.

On the first night, The Kooks (Tom Allcock, Matt Green, Piers Berry and Dan Power) were victorious with their sensational version of ‘Naïve’, while Katie Perry (Ellie Watts) singing ‘The One That Got Away’ was the winner on the second night.

Both were deserving champions, but all those who took part should be congratulated for their first class performances.

The sales of a DVD produced by the College’s Young Enterprise business, Opus, will further boost the funds raised for the research into the rare disease known as Niemann-Pick.

Report by David Ballard (Upper Fifth, Bishop’s Stortford College)