Chapter 19: Results
The difference between the reaction of a live audience and the reaction of the audience of a posted video was great. In one, you could see a person's comment while performing. I could see if they were enjoying it while I was singing, and that gave me even more motivation to sing, to sing better, to sing more, to improve while I was singing! On the other hand, although it was still very rewarding, I saw the comments there more as a quieter form of thanks.
"Woah dude, what was that?!" Quacktus asked abruptly as he looked at the screen with excitement.
"BV, my boy, you didn't say you had such a bomb to show us today. Had I known, I would have let you perform last!" Guapo said with a laugh.
"Tell me BV, did you really compose this song and the instrumental for it?" Phill asked excitedly.
Laughing and a little out of breath, I replied, "Yes, they're both my doing. You know when you have a lazy day and you don't want to do anything? I made this song on one of those days. Usually the style of music I make is heavier, but when I wrote these lyrics I knew that style wouldn't fit the music, so I tried to explore a more relaxed and upbeat style. I still don't think the instrumental is perfect, so I want to polish it before releasing the song."
"You said you're going to release the song... are you a real musician by any chance?" Quacktus asked in shock, his expression exaggerated.
"'Real musician' might be too strong an expression, but I recently started my music career. I currently have one song out, haha," I replied, taking the opportunity to promote my channel.
When Olivia showed me the stream, there were 3,000 people watching, as it was getting close to the voting time for the best candidates, and maybe my music had helped a little, since there were currently 5,000 people on the stream.
"Woah, so we have a potential up-and-coming musician on the stream! What's the name of your channel, BV? Is it BlackVelvet by any chance?" Guapo asked, trying to guess.
"Yes Guapo, the name of the channel is BlackVelvet! If you like the song, don't forget to search for the channel on MeTube and Spokify. Maybe you'll like my other song," I spoke in a voice like a product salesman on TV.
"Is that right? I'll put the link to his channel in the chat. Anyone interested can click on it to support him!" Quacktus said as he put the channel link in the chat.
-------- Quacktus' Commentary --------
Sitting on the sofa in front of the camera, Quacktus looked at the interviewer with a very excited expression.
"Bro, the stream broke the record for the most viewers of my entire career!" he said as he plopped down on the couch, "If I had known this was going to happen, I would have done this talent show a long time ago."
"The biggest surprise of the show? It was definitely BV with the song he did. I saw in the comments that practically everyone liked it, and it's rare that a lot of people like the same thing, so listen to me: this kid has a future!"
Picking up his cell phone and confirming something, Quacktus cracked a smile. "If you want to get into this business, you have to be smart, you have to know the people to get close to and the people to stay away from."
"Black Velvet is in the first category. With the talent and creativity he has, I know that at least this song 'The Lazy Song' is going to be a hit, so why not give him a hand at the beginning when he needs it the most, and when he grows up he'll return the favor?2
-------- Comment End --------
I was surprised to get a friend request from Quacktus on Discord right after my presentation. Looking again at the number of viewers who were online for the stream, his friend request was understandable. Even though I imagined that he might be doing it to use some of my songs to get views, wasn't that the same reason I was on his stream in the first place? I only agreed to participate in this talent show because of the number of viewers and the prize, which will be very useful to me.
If either of those criteria were not met, I probably wouldn't have even opened the stream. It would be naive to think that my path to fame will only be filled with true friends, girls who are truly in love, and people who only want to do me good. The moment I decided to take this path, I already accepted that mutual interests would arise, and the best thing I can do is benefit from it. If this friendship lasts and we can help each other for a long time, what's the harm?
While I was watching the last contestant, the door to my room opened. Walking through the door were Olivia, Ethan, my mom, and dad.
"That was amazing, Noah..." Ethan shouted excitedly as he ran up to me and looked at the guitar with bright eyes.
"That song was really cool, Noah!" Olivia said with a smile, pointing to the screen of her phone, which also had the stream open.
"Noah, your song managed to perfectly describe my perfect Sunday..." My father laughed as he sat on the bed next to me with a relaxed attitude.
"The song was really good, Noah, but that part about making the word with an S... is that true? Have you ever done that with anyone?" my mother asked.
As soon as she asked the question, the atmosphere in the room froze. Olivia's face was completely red and she tried to hide behind her phone screen. My dad looked at me for a split second and gave me a thumbs up while proudly whispering, "My boy!" 2
Ethan was completely lost because he didn't even know what the word S*x meant.1
At that moment, I was the only one who could answer my mother.
While my mind was working at the speed of light, my salvation came from the computer's speakers.
[Now let's start voting for the best presentation, the one that will receive a Telemikten 79S microphone worth $2000!!!]
[Although this microphone has been in use for a few months, it has never presented any problems and is in perfect working order!]
Quacktus explained on the stream, causing the focus of everyone in the room to shift to the stream. Deliberately, I ignored my mother's last question while she continued to stare at me a little suspiciously for a few seconds before finally looking at the computer screen.
[BV, BV, BV, BV, BV!]
[Bro, I don't want BV to win... I'm crying my eyes out because of the Numb song he posted on his channel, damn, why post something like that?!]
[I heard the song too, but now I want him to win even more!]
[I'm voting for macmacmac, the jokes he told made me a lot happier].
[Is this really a good song?]
[I didn't like it very much, I prefer Riley's songs].
[Brother, you're comparing a singer who just released his first song with Riley?!]
[To answer the question, yes, the song is very good! Even though I can't really relate to the lyrics, the rhythm of the song is very good, now I have the song in my head and it won't go away!"].
[It seems that BV really has a talent for creating instrumentals of songs that are memorable, both the Numb song he posted on MeTube and the Lazy song he sang now get stuck in your head very easily].
[I think the girl who could imitate a dolphin was very talented].
[Someone saved Lazy Song?!]
We were very happy to see that most of the comments about my song were positive, so when the voting opened, we all took out our cell phones and voted for me to increase my chances of getting the microphone. I could raise money and buy it, but wouldn't it be better to get it for free? Olivia even went to the computer in her room to vote again, while I took the opportunity to vote on the computer in my room as well.
Now all we had to do was wait for the results. After a bit of waffling, they finally showed the voting charts.
[With an astronomical 82% of the votes, BlackVelvet was the winner of our first talent show!]
As soon as it was announced, we all started celebrating. Ethan was jumping up and down with joy. Olivia ran over and hugged me happily as she congratulated me.
After she let go of me, my parents also came to congratulate me. At that moment, everyone had a big smile on their faces.
-------- Lauren and Jonathan Commentary --------
Sitting on the interview couch, Lauren and Jonathan hugged each other with small smiles on their faces.
"That song Noah sang..." Lauren began, "I don't think it's been many years since I've seen him as relaxed as he was when he sang that song."
"Yes, dear," Jonathan said, "It was as if he really sang it with a sense of peace that I haven't seen in a long time."
Nodding her head, Lauren continued, "It seems like ever since he started working out and trying to change, he was always in a race, trying to speed up as much as possible to finish soon."
Jonathan just nodded, but he didn't know much about any of that since he hadn't had much contact with Noah before. "How about we arrange something as a family so he can rest and relax a bit?"
"Do you think everything is alright, honey?" she asked worriedly as she looked at him.
"I think it will be good for our children. I think it will especially be good for Olivia as well," he explained as he gave her a side hug.
Accepting the hug, Lauren snuggled into Jonathan's embrace and they stayed like that for a few minutes.
-------- Comment End --------
With the results already announced, Quacktus called me over to say a few words on the stream before ending the show and asking for my address so he could send me the microphone. Even though it was his old microphone, it was still much better than the microphone on my cell phone that I was using to record my songs.
Even though I wanted to keep the look of an indie musician starting out on his own, I could still do that with a good microphone that would improve the quality of my audio; I just had to be careful not to make the music sound like studio music too quickly. I want to keep the idea that I'm an indie musician, which I really am, for a while.
But what I didn't know at the time was that a viewer had taken a clip of the stream where I was singing and posted it on other social networks and that clip went viral!1
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