Sixth grader wins middle school Idol contest

Her performance energized the entire Feagin Mill Middle School Cafeteria crowd during Thursday night’s first annual Houston County Middle School Idol. Adlih Leggette stole the spotlight as she won the contest with her high energy Michael Jackson like dance moves and engagement involving the audience throughout the night.

A sixth grader at Feagan Mill, Leggette impressed Judges Olivia McMillian, Eric Payne and Rick Unruh with her first performance of “Love on Top” by Beyonce and her final performance of “Higher Ground” by Stevie Wonder.

“I was very excited to win and it’s an honor to win against [all of] Houston County,” Leggette said.

By winning the event Leggette received a $25 ITunes gift card, a card from Chick-fi-A with a free offer for Jan., Feb. and March, a free ice cream from Cold Stone Creamery and a box of Russell Stover Chocolate. Each contestant also received a gift bag for participating. Leggette said she would like someday become a professional actor or singer.

“She [Leggette] showed a lot of maturity beyond her age and to be able to go up there and perform like that and be comfortable on the stage is something that comes with being mature and growing up,” McMillian said. “It is very rare to see someone like that [in the sixth grade] comfortable and have that vocal maturity at that young of an age. She reminded me of The Jackson 5 and was incredible [tonight].”

According to McMillian who is a senior at Northside High School and a former Miss Northside in 2012 said the participants were judged on stage presence, connection with audience and choice of apparel. The other five finalists were Leggette, Jessi Crutchfield of Warner Robins Middle School, Cacee Clowers of Mossy Creek Middle School, Daisy Astudillo of Thomson Middle School and Julian Santos of Feagin Mill.

Michelle Leary, Executive Director of the Houston County Middle School Mixed Chorus said that she came up with idea of having this event in September and in December tryouts were held with 20 students out of 35-40 who tried out selected for Thursday’s event.

“We started this event because we have five Houston County Middle Schools without chorus programs,” Leary said. “I had a brainstorm of doing something like this because the chorus is open to all of the kids. We auditioned at two different schools and invited everyone in the county to come out [and watch these students take part in this event],”

“The amount of confidence that they have especially the kids coming from places that have a choral program or places that where kids are doing something within the arts and it really inspires the confidence in them. There were a lot of six graders here tonight and to do this in front of everybody and even to audition is a huge deal for them”.

Leary said she hopes this becomes annual event and commended everyone who sang at the Middle School Idol.

“I would to do it every year and have all the representatives from all the schools,” she said. “I am really proud of all the contestants and they all did an awesome job.”

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