Karaoke the Place to be on a Friday Night

Since mid-January, there has been singing and good times on Friday nights in Ellington as has played host to a karaoke contest.

Friday night was the culmination of the event as individuals and duets competed in the finals vying for the chance to win the first, second, and third place prizes. (Individual awards were worth $600, $275, and $175, while prizes in the duets category were $300, $150, and $100.)

Restaurant manager Becky Dehnel said that Holiday started having karaoke in February 2009, and that the event has proven to be very successful.

The karaoke event is hosted by D.A.S.H. Entertainment, which is owned by Ron Dinardo and his daughter, Tricia Perkett, and has been in business since 2007. 

Starting on January 21, the restaurant qualified two people a week for 17 weeks for a total of 34 contestants. They also qualified contestants to compete in a duet portion of the competition but that was limited to the first 12 duets that qualified.

On May 20, 17 out of the 34 contestants performed in the quarterfinals and sang one song of their choice. Ten of these contestants moved on to the semifinals. 

On June 3, the other 17 of the 34 contestants performed in the quarterfinals. They also sang one song of their choice and 10 of them moved on to the semifinals. 

Last week, the 20 contestants who made it sang one song of their choice and 10 of them made it to the finals.

For the finals, the 10 singers who made it got to sing one song of their choice, while the 12 duets that qualified also sang one song of their choice. 

People performed songs by Conway Twitty, Carrie Underwood, Journey, and many more to an estimated crowd of 80 people. Dehnel said that all the tables had been reserved for the competition by 8 p.m.

Michael Falconeri, of New Britain, thought it would be better to sing later in the night.

“If it’s later, everybody is getting drunk and you sound better,” Falconeri said.

Falconeri has performed karaoke for the past three years. Before starting his karaoke career, he was performing musical theatre, he said.

During the duet portion of the night, Falconeri performed “Take Me Home, Country Roads” by John Denver with Rob Crickmore, of Ellington. They met each other at a karaoke event at in Ellington.

Crickmore said they chose the song because of the good comments they received from people the last time they performed it.

Falconeri and Crickmore weren’t the only contestants to meet at a previous karaoke event.

Jim Richard, of Stafford Springs, and Jessica Prentiss, of Ellington, met two weeks ago. They sang the duet, “Close My Eyes Forever” by Lita Ford and Ozzy Osborne.

During their performance, they only looked to the television screen for the words a couple times and made it seem like they had been singing together for years instead of just weeks.

Prentiss also performed Celine Dion’s “The Power of Love” in the individual category.

Participant Charlie Ragno, of Enfield, has been performing karaoke for the past seven years and competing for the past four years. He heard about this event on Facebook.

Ragno said he loves singing and performing in front of people and started competing to see if he was any good. He has performed songs by Guns N’ Roses, The Doors, and Neil Diamond, he said.

For the finals, Ragno performed “Livin’ on a Prayer” by Bon Jovi with Desiree Ramirez, of Enfield, who won the individual competition last year.

Ramirez said that she and Ragno had performed duets before, but this was the first time they sang together for a competition.

The winners were:

Individual - first, Ticina Cotto from Hartford; second, Gary Gifford from Windsor; and third, Todd Johnson from Manchester.

Duets - first, Jeff Sonner and Cheryl Badura from Enfield; second, Kate Sullivan and Steve Budarz of Vernon; and third Jim Richard of Stafford and Jessica Prentiss of Ellington.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Holiday Pizza restaurant manager Becky Dehnel also works as a part-time calendar editor for Patch.com in north central Connecticut.

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