Monday, April 16, 2012

Soulful seventeen year old takes out Urban Quest title

Seventeen year old Gabby Wright has won the 2012 Mission Australia Urban Quest youth talent competition.

Gabby stole the show with a soulful rendition of Adele’s “Make you feel my love”. The Palmerston student has been singing since the age of five and plans to pursue a career in music after finishing year twelve.

Urban Quest judges Mark Holden, Deni Hines and Paul Costa were captivated by the talent of all of the young contestants at the Sunday night grand final.

Mark Holden awarded his famous “touchdown” to four of the performers, while Deni and Paul created their own special “touchdown” for ten year old rap sensation Monique Chong of Alice Springs.

Mission Australia Operations Manager Jillian Smith said she was amazed with the wealth of talent they had discovered through the Urban Quest program.

“This has been a wonderful opportunity for Mission Australia to work with young people in Darwin, Palmerston, Katherine and Alice Springs and help them achieve their potential. Be it the heats, mentoring sessions or the finals, they have all had a chance to put themselves forward and grow through the experience.”

In what was a truly hard job for the judges, second place was awarded to Monique Chong for “Hit ‘em high” and third went to 14 year old Shiane Hawke with a heartfelt performance of Whitney Houston’s “I will always love you”.

This is the second year Mission Australia has run the Urban Quest competition. Winners receive $1000 from Bendigo Community Bank Nightcliff for first place, and $250 and $150 from Amity Community Services for second and third.

During the Urban Quest events Mission Australia also raised funds towards a program against Cyber Bullying, with all donations collected at the finals going towards the two-week self-esteem program.

Urban Quest is proudly supported by Quest Serviced Apartments Parap, Argus Apartments Darwin, Bendigo Community Bank Nightcliff, Amity Community Services, Independent Grocers, Coca Cola, Local hirers subsidy, Dream Media, Casuarina Square and the Darwin Entertainment Centre.

For more information on Urban Quest go to www.missionaustralia.com or http://www.facebook.com/#!/MissionAust