BLOGS

Tartans Got Talent has always been an anticipated event. I say anticipated because it is really one of those events that you have in EC that are not to be missed. People from all factions of Education City show up to see what the talent at Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar has to offer, and for the past two years Tartans Got Talent delivered what it promised.

Performances were on point and matched up to shows like Britain’s Got Talent. Okay, maybe that’s an exaggeration, but every single time I attended Tartans Got Talent, I came out thinking, “I can’t believe that some of these performances were done by my peers.” It was not just that the performers who were talented, but you could tell that a lot of practice went into these performances.

This year however, Tartans Got Talent was an unexpected disappointment.  Granted this year had its highlights -  the Masters of Ceremony were great, some of the dance performances were amazing, and the instrumental performances were breathtaking. However, most of the good parts of the evening were overshadowed by unprepared performances.

 

Unlike the other talent shows that Education City has, Tartans Got Talent does not require the participants to audition, and hence allowing the members of the CMUQ community to be expressive of their talents without any restrictions. And over the past two years the participants took the responsibility seriously and did their very best to put on a show. Which to the credit of the organizers, student affairs made TGT what it is today, that of course alongside the creativity and talent that resides within CMUQ.

 

 

This year however as I mentioned some of the performances fell short, due to the fact that the participants didn’t take that responsibility seriously.  

 

All ranting aside though, the night did have redeeming qualities. We were started off by quite the unusual performance; Dilsher Ahmed played the piano spectacularly, what was unusual about this performance you say? He played the piano while having one of his legs wrapped around the back of his head. We then listened to a couple of music performances that proved that tartans do posses talent. The list of redeeming performances continues with VSPs (Voice and Stage Performance Club) dance performance that was very impressive, it felt as though we were watching a professional dance crew perform, this was all complimented by them wearing matching outfits, that had these random letters at the back of them. Why the random letters you wonder, well half way through their performances, they all turned around, and formulated themselves so that letters on their backs spelled “JOIN” at one instance, and then suddenly the reshuffled and their shirts spelt “VSP”.

 

 

The amazing dance performances didn’t end there; we still had a couple of cool surprises ahead of us. But first, we were introduced to Fatma Al Emadi, who walked into the stage pretty shyly, and confessed that she was pretty nervous about performing, however, once her fingers touched the keyboard, most of us were at a loss for words. Just the sheer power of the music she played had everyone in this state of trance mesmerized by the music they were hearing.

 

 

Next we had another dancing performance in store for us, a desi dance, and as we all probably know an EC organized talent show is not complete without desi dance, and after watching that performance you’d understand why. The group featuring Kevin D'Arco from CMU-Q’s student affairs was very entertaining and had the crowd cheering from the moment they started till they were done. The night had a couple more highlight worthy performances, such as the funny rendition of the Brazilian/Portuguese song “Ai Se Eu Te Pego,”  and the student affairs dance performance.

 

For the most part Tartans Got Talent was a decent event, and I am looking forward to next year. I just hope that the participants prepare ahead, and dazzle us the way they always seem to do.