Idol contestant Syesha Mercado seemed destined for greatness
March 18th, 2008
The striking 21-year-old singer, dancer and actress grew up performing in the Sarasota area before moving to Miami for college. She’s been singing since she was a toddler in a musical family that included three sisters and mother Zelda, a former Motown backup singer.
As a child, Syesha — it’s pronounced “sigh-EE-sha” — sang in church and grew accustomed to performing in public — she once sang the national anthem at a Pittsburgh Pirates baseball game. Her turns in musicals such as
Seussical: The Musical at a Sarasota arts high school drew raves. She’s acted in commercials, sang in a band, won a car in a statewide singing contest and even appeared briefly on a reality TV show.
So nobody back home is surprised that she’s standing among the final 11 on the Fox TV show that has the potential to make her a household name. And, they say, it couldn’t happen to a nicer person.
“When she was going to high school, she was aspiring to do that kind of thing. I remember she and her friends talking about it,” said Johnnie Mnich, theater director in the elite performing arts program at Booker High School. “I think it was a matter of time before it happened. She knows what she wants, and she knows what she’s good at.”
Mnich recalls marveling at Mercado’s talent when the she won the lead in the musical
Once on This Island as a sophomore.
“I was just blown away,” he said. “I was amazed at the level of expertise and strength and training.”
Bruce Merkle, 20, spent all four years in the Booker arts program acting and singing with Mercado. They shared their first stage kiss in
Once on This Island.
“She’s sounded like that since she was 14, as long as I can remember,” said Merkle, now a stage actor and still close friends with Mercado. “She’s the real deal. And she’s genuinely a nice person. She’s very grounded and knows what she wants.”
Tags: 18, american, idol, march
March 18th, 2008 at 11:42 pm
Particularly noticeable on the Palestinian Israeli issue.
March 19th, 2008 at 12:32 am
What I’d like to see (if anyone cares what Philo thinks…)The link is the <Title> tag from the page itself - can’t be edited. Then have a subtitle/comment field where the submitter can add the why or their perspective.The only way to add karma is by clicking on the link to load the page - that upvotes the link. Then the user can come back and downvote the link if they choose. (If you clicked on the link, you found it interesting enough to click on; i.e. upvote)That kind of setup solves a lot of the complaints and problems that have seemed prevalent lately.(I’d also like a “Comment” block on the submission page where the submitter can write a more thorough/thoughtful comment about the story that’s sticky and stays at the top - would also be really helpful in self posts)
March 19th, 2008 at 1:23 am
Yeah, why do people bother with self-help groups?
March 19th, 2008 at 2:13 am
I agree. It is as dumb as writing “alittle”.
March 19th, 2008 at 3:04 am
If you don’t want to be bombarded with opinion you are on the wrong web site.
March 19th, 2008 at 3:54 am
I confirm: I downmod all topics with spelling mistakes, all capital letters, all titles where the first letter of each word is capitalised, all inaccurate or misleading titles, and all titles which are “aho-eigo” - stupid English.I do this regardless of the quality of the article, and my personal feeling about it.
March 19th, 2008 at 4:45 am
What I’d like to see is people putting their opinions in the comment section instead of in the title. I’ve probably passed up many interesting articles because someone put too much spin on the title.When it comes down to it, if I’m interested in giving/reading an opinion, I click the comments. I don’t want to be bombarded with it from the start.
March 19th, 2008 at 5:36 am
That might work for Political articles, but there are lots of good submissions to reddit that are not “articles” - sometimes they’re title-less pictures (beautiful, funny or otherwise), sometimes things submitted for ironic value (where the title would do nothing to indicate the reason redditors would appreciate it) and sometimes given titles just plain suck at conveying the value of the content inside the article.
March 19th, 2008 at 6:26 am
It’s a pseudoquote from Austin Powers. I just always liked how neatly it conveyed a very quick and effective solution. It helps a lot if you hear how he says it.
March 19th, 2008 at 7:17 am
Yep, and in the time it takes to read it, a bunch of people are pounding it down (out of habit, spite, or ‘fear of competition’).
March 19th, 2008 at 8:07 am
Yes, could be the ‘this’ he refers to is the fact that some articles have poor titles, not that he has realized that (voting based on titles) is a bad way to vote
March 19th, 2008 at 8:58 am
Many people on reddit don’t write well, most don’t even write correctly. If they were editors writing headlines in a real paper they would have been fired long ago.
March 19th, 2008 at 9:48 am
Maybe it would work as an unwritten rule. People get downmodded for breaking it unless them breaking it leads to more upmods then downmods.
March 19th, 2008 at 10:39 am
see http://reddit.com/info/66orr/comments/c0309ta
March 19th, 2008 at 11:30 am
no shit sherlock