Swetha Bharat: The new Aggie Voice
This year, 60 people auditioned to compete in Utah State University’s annual Aggie Voice singing competition on Dec. 13. Ultimately, Swetha Bharat came out on top as The Aggie Voice.
“The hardest part of this whole event is finding the people that you want because there wasn’t a single person that had a bad audition, so that made it very difficult for the choosing process,” said Ashlynn Smith, USUSA Student Events executive director.
The final contestants consisted of Anna Small, Gracie Young, Landon Cook, Nathan Ahlstrom, Presley May Whitesides, Robbie Allen, Stockton Glover and Swetha Bharat.
Smith says she hopes Aggie Voice leaves the audience with good memories.
Over 1,200 students gathered in the TSC Ballroom to hear USU’s greatest voices compete for the title. Eight contestants put on performances that had the student body cheering.
A judges panel consisted of TJ Davis, Kenzie Davis Kremlin and last year’s Aggie Voice winner Libby Prusso, who voted on the contestants alongside the audience.
The competition began with a group performance from all the contestants. After the first round of individual performances, judges and audience members voted to decide who the top three finalists would be.
The final finalist and USU’s new Aggie Voice Swetha Bharat sang her original song “Lifetimes.”
“If the music that I performed was somewhat relatable, I hope that it touched people in that way. I feel like music speaks volumes, and I don’t know what the people in the audience have gone through, but if any of the lyrics I sang were relatable, I hope they felt that,” Bharat said.
The first finalist, Presley May Whitesides, sang an original song she called “Golden Retriever.”
“I just wanted to show people that there’s so much beauty in songwriting, and there’s so much beauty in loving people, and just getting to share that with everyone was such a cool experience,” Whitesides said.
The other finalist Stockton Glover performed “He Used to be Mine” from the hit musical “Waitress.”
“Finding out that I was a finalist was a very sweet feeling. It made me feel like I was noticed, and it made me feel like I did something— that I touched people,” Glover said.
Bharat received a $200 cash prize along with an opportunity new to the competition this year: She will have her original song recorded with Aggie Radio. According to Bharat, the best part of participating was being able to sing with the other contestants.
“I got to see everybody backstage singing their hearts out, and I feel like I learned a lot from them,” Bharat said.
Bharat described the experience as a “step forward” in her musical aspirations and even had one of the other contestants offer her the opportunity to open for two bands later this month.
“Just knowing that you were able to help someone feel something is the best feeling ever. I hope that I did that in some way, shape or form, at least to one person,” Bharat said.