Featured Songs:
1. Breakaway by Kelly Clarkson
2. Catch My Breath by Kelly Clarkson
"Welcome back, everyone! We're back tonight with a new season of Coruscant's Got Talent." Introduced a Pantoran male. "I'm your host Byron Dyaz. As you all know, at the beginning of each season, twenty contestants will audition live on intergalactic holo-vision. But only one of them will survive to the season finale. And whoever wins will be decided by you, the viewers at home. And before we get started with the auditions, let's meet our panel of judges."
There were four main judges: Harvey Mental, Mikey Plum, Adella, Simone Carwell, and the celebrity guest judge... cat themed singing sensation Lady Purry.
The way the show worked, there were five audition rounds, each with four contestants selected at random to compete in one episode. In each episode, the contestants with the least amount of votes would be eliminated, and the contestant who was left after the third episode would make it to the final round. And in the season finale, the top five contestants would all perform in a final battle for the grand prize of a big recording contract and one million credits.
Backstage, Carmine hid from all the other contestants behind a divider, breathing heavily.
Round five, the final audition before the finals that would determine the winner of this season of Coruscant's Got Talent.
This was the moment he'd worked so hard for all his life, and very soon, he would be on a stage on a live broadcast. Make one wrong move and not just his, but the reputation and very existence of Rock and Rockus could come tumbling down. All those years of practicing his music, his dancing, and all the work he'd put into acing the audition to get accepted into Melody Academy and graduate valedictorian would be for naught.
No. I can't think that way. Carmine told himself.
"I've worked too hard to back down now." Carmine said.
Carmine looked into his locket and saw the picture of his father and grandmother, as well as the one he'd added of his wife and daughter. All these people were a big part of how he was able to gather the courage to audition for the studio that chose him to represent them in the first season of one of the most famous broadcast talent shows in the galaxy.
His grandmother Miranda always called Carmine her song of joy, and so had his father. Carmine remembered when his father told him how he came to name him, he immediately chose the name Carmine in part because of the music note shaped birthmark on his left shoulder blade, but also because the moment he saw him his heart burst into a happy song. Both Qui-Gon and Miranda always told Carmine to follow his dreams, and taught him that hard work and persistence would pay off someday. They both believed in him and made it their job to make sure he knew he was special, destined for great things, and that no one but he was in charge of whether he succeeded in life.
Caroline, from the very beginning, though she couldn't explain why when she first saw Carmine, knew there was something special about Carmine. She'd been surrounded by snobby rich guys in every school she'd attended, or any time her father tried to set her up with a potential future husband. By the time she finally began attending a boarding school where she could exercise her independence without her parents' meddling, she had grown tired of all these jerky guys who only wanted her for her looks, her family's money and/or status, or because they wanted to do unmentionable stuff to her. But then she spotted a male dancer who'd lost his glasses. Unlike every other guy she'd met, the moment his vision became clear again, he didn't throw himself at her the first chance he got. Instead, she found he'd sent her anonymous love gifts because he was shy and genuinely liked her and wanted to get to know her. He thought she was beautiful in more ways than one, and he did little things every day to heed her that he loved her and wanted to be with her, to love her, care for her, and cherish her. And even when he learned they were going to be teen parents, he stuck by her. And before and after their marriage, Carmine and she kissed each other and loved each other every day, and gave each other constant reminders of why they got married and how much they loved each other. And their baby girl became a beacon of hope and motivation for them to work harder.
Lamenta was Carmine and Caroline's whole world, and they wanted to give her the world. Caroline wanted to give her daughter more freedom and fewer expectations to live up to than she had growing up; her family always put so much pressure on her to be the best dancer, to carry on their family legacy to ballet, and to meet a husband that would share her status and impregnate her with a child who would carry on the bloodline and traditions. But Caroline didn't want her baby to grow up thinking that she had no say in who she grew up to be or what career she would have. If she wanted to be a dancer, a doctor, a teacher, or a party planner, it would be her decision and no one else's. Carmine also wanted Lamenta to be able to follow her dreams. And he wanted her to have what he didn't have growing up. A father who was present physically and emotionally on more than just her birthday, a family with both her mother and her father, and being able to see more of the galaxy.
Carmine's dream was to perform, and now that he was about to get that chance to up his career, he knew he had to gather his courage more than ever... for his family and for himself.
"I'm going to make you proud, Dad and Grandma." Carmine whispered to the picture. "And I won't let you or our baby down, Caroline."
As you might imagine, there were a lot of talented contestants auditioning for the next few rounds. There were singers, dancers, people doing feats of acrobatics or amazing strength. There were even people with extra unique talents such as training a horse to dance tango, singing ventriloquists, contortionists, and playing music on water glasses blindfolded. Carmine had some stiff competition.
Carmine felt so many butterflies fluttering in his stomach as he stood backstage, waiting his turn. This was it, the moment he'd been waiting for.
Byron Dyaz congratulated the second-to-last contestant on a well executed performance and sent them backstage to await the time for the first elimination.
"And now, our final round five contestant. He is known for his StarScreen channel as teen sensation ShyGuy29. Please give a warm welcome to this artist who now has given his new name, Count Crescendo."
Carmine entered the stage dressed in an outfit of different shades of blue with a sparkly glitter jacket, his face covered by dark blue hair. The crowd was cheering as he stepped up on stage to begin his act. He cleared his throat and picked up the microphone that was set up for him.
"Hello, everyone." Carmine began as Crescendo, altering his voice slightly as he spoke. "My name is Count Crescendo, and tonight is a very special night for me because I've dreamed of singing on stage my whole life, but was too shy to do so when I was younger. When I was small, I didn't have much in terms of wealth or possessions, but I always had the thing I loved the most by my side. My grandmother, who always told me to follow my dreams and shared with me a love that gave me the power to appear here tonight. In memory of her and how much she meant to me, I'm going to sing a song I wrote about how much I was inspired to come out of my shell. This is going to be called Breakaway."
The lights dimmed a little as a blue spotlight shined on Crescendo, and beautiful smooth guitar music began to play.
Da-da-da, un, da-da
Da-da-da, un, da-da
Da-da-da, un, da-da-da-da
Da-da-da, un, da-da
Da-da-da, un, da-da
Da-da-da, un, da-da-da-da
Grew up in a small town
And when the rain would fall down
I'd just stare out my window
Dreaming of what could be
And if I'd end up happy
I would pray
Trying hard to reach out
But when I tried to speak out
Felt like no one could hear me
Wanted to belong here
But something felt so wrong here
So I prayed (I would pray)
I could breakaway
I'll spread my wings and I'll learn how to fly
I'll do what it takes 'til I touch the sky
And I'll make a wish, take a chance, make a change
And breakaway
Out of the darkness and into the sun
But I won't forget all the ones that I love
I'll take a risk, take a chance, make a change
And breakaway
The light went out for a moment, and by the time it went back on, Crescendo had changed his outfit to a softer blue with little white butterflies decorating it like his grandmother's favorite scarf, and he changed his hair to a sky blue.
Da-da-da, un, da-da
Da-da-da, un, da-da
Da-da-da, un, da-da-da-da
Wanna feel the warm breeze
Sleep under a palm tree
Feel the rush of the ocean
Get onboard a fast train
Travel on a jet plane, far away (I will)
And breakaway
I'll spread my wings and I'll learn how to fly
I'll do what it takes til' I touch the sky
And I'll make a wish, take a chance, make a change
And breakaway
Out of the darkness and into the sun
I won't forget all the ones that I love
I gotta take a risk, take a chance, make a change
And breakaway
The light went out again, and Crescendo appeared in an outfit of gold and orange with his hair changed to a yellow orange color like a sunrise.
Buildings with a hundred floors
Swinging around revolving doors
Maybe I don't know where they'll take me, but
Gotta keep moving on, moving on
Fly away, breakaway
And the crowd couldn't believe their eyes when Crescendo literally spread his wings and began to fly as he continued his song with the passion in his voice growing stronger every second, and he didn't hesitate to sing it loud and with his love for his grandmother making his song that much more truthful.
I'll spread my wings
And I'll learn how to fly
Though it's not easy to tell you goodbye
I gotta take a risk, take a chance, make a change
And breakaway
Out of the darkness and into the sun
But I won't forget the place I come from
I gotta take a risk, take a chance, make a change
And breakaway
Breakaway
Breakaway
Crescendo landed back on the floor gracefully on his feet and folded his wings in as the lights dimmed down. The crowd cheered as Crescendo stood and took in what had just happened. He actually sang on stage in front of a live audience and live on a broadcast to millions across the galaxy. He took a big breath as Byron approached him with a smile on his face.
"You saw it here tonight, folks. A very moving performance by Count Crescendo." said the host. "Let's hear what our judges have to say about it."
Harvey Mental:
"What a voice. I've never heard anything like that. You've got talent, kid. You're going places."
Mikey Plum:
He picked up his phone and said "I just gotta say, that was so moving with how you said your grandmother inspired you, I just have to call my grandmother right now and tell her I love her." And so much of the audience aww'd at that statement.
Adella:
"Wow, I mean just... wow. You had so much passion, so much raw emotion we hardly see in guys these days. Whoever you are underneath all that hair, I probably didn't know your grandma, but I just know she would be so proud of you now. If you were my son, I'd call you my song of joy."
"My grandma actually did used to call me that." smiled Crescendo. "Thanks for saying that."
Simone Carwell:
She was usually one of the harsher judges.
"Pretty cliche with the whole story about being alone and poor if you ask me." Of course, the audience boo'ed at that statement. "But I will confess, you've got surprisingly on-pitch vocal skills. A few extra singing lessons and you just might make it as a singer at a club or something."
Lady Purry:
"Count Crescendo, you are no ordinary boy, I can tell you that. Your mix of passion, love, and a beautiful voice is so much more than undeniable talent, it is musical purr-fection. Meow." She made a flirtatious clawing motion to Crescendo, who tried not to blush, knowing his wife would probably start a cat fight if anyone tried hitting on her husband.
Crescendo was congratulated once again and sent backstage to await the final results.
Carmine got on the phone with his wife and told her how nervous he was by this.
"You did amazing up there, Baby." Caroline said. "You're getting lots of great comments on livestream too! People really love your voice and how passionate you are. Including me."
"Yay!" Lamenta cheered cutely.
"Lamenta too." Caroline chuckled.
Carmine started to feel even better hearing how proud his wife and daughter were of him now. But the race wasn't over yet. Now came the really scary part: the elimination.
There were three other contestants besides Carmine/Count Crescendo.
There was a Twilek girl named Mayna Curtis, who had a pair of voorpaks she trained to dance ballet with her, a Nautolan named Tack whose talent was break dancing on roller skates, a pair of Togruta twins named Quinn and Lynn Manden who performed outstanding acrobatics together on their hover-cycles, and a human girl named Geneva who was a one woman band.
"Here we are once again," said Byron Dyaz. "the most devastating part of each round. Elimination. Five amazing performers stand here now, but only four of them will make it to night two of round five and be one step closer to the finals. The act with the least amount of votes will be going home tonight. Your votes have been counted, and the first performer to be eliminated is..."
There was a tick-tock sound echoing in the air. Everyone, especially the performers, heard that tick-tocking sounding louder and louder. The performers' knees were shaking as the suspense grew and grew.
"Geneva the One-Woman band." said Byron regretfully.
AWWW!
"Geneva, we are so sorry to see you go. You did great tonight. Why don't we hear another big hand for Geneva?"
The crowd cheered and the other contestants clapped for Geneva to let her know that even though she wouldn't move on, her talent was not without recognition.
And so, it meant Count Crescendo would move on to the next round. But if he wanted to stay in the competition, he needed to up his game a little. But he was not the only one who knew this.
So the next episode, Crescendo sang another song from his journal.
I don't wanna be left behind
Distance was a friend of mine
Catching breath in a web of lies
I've spent most of my life
Riding waves, playing acrobat
Shadowboxing the other half
Learning how to react
I've spent most of my time
Catching my breath, letting it go
Turning my cheek for the sake of this show
Now that you know, this is my life
I won't be told what's supposed to be right
Catch my breath, no one can hold me back, I ain't got time for that
Catch my breath, won't let them get me down, it's all so so simple now
And like in his first performance, Carmine began changing his outfits and his hair each time the lights went out. And this time, he put in more movement to his song.
Addicted to the love I found
Heavy heart, now a weightless cloud
Making time for the ones that count
I'll spend the rest of my time
Laughing hard with the windows down
Leaving footprints all over town
Keeping faith, Karma comes around
I will spent the rest of my life
Catching my breath, letting it go
Turning my cheek for the sake of this show
Now that you know, this is my life
I won't be told what's supposed to be right
Catch my breath, no one can hold me back, I ain't got time for that
Catch my breath, won't let them get me down, it's all so so simple now
Carmine thought of Caroline when he sang the last line.
You helped me see
The beauty in everything
Catching my breath, letting it go
Turning my cheek for the sake of this show
Now that you know, this is my life
I won't be told what's supposed to be right
Catching my breath, letting it go
Turning my cheek for the sake of this show
Now that you know, this is my life
I won't be told what's supposed to be right
Catch my breath
Catch my breath, no one can hold me back, I ain't got time for that
Catch my breath, won't let them get me down, it's all so so simple now
It's all so simple now
Catching my breath, letting it go
Turning my cheek for the sake of this show
Now that you know, this is my life
I won't be told what's supposed to be right
Catch my breath
Catch my breath, no one can hold me back, I ain't got time for that
Catch my breath, won't let them get me down, it's all so so simple now
Once again the crowd cheered as Crescendo finished his song by tossing his head back and letting the back of his hair hang.
This time, the one who was eliminated was... Mayna Curtis.
All who was left were the Manden twins, Tack, and Crescendo.