Last year Tess sang "Mean" by Taylor Swift at the county fair. Last night she sang "Royals" by Lorde.  For me the differences were noteworthy. Last year's group of participants was small and a bit uneven with respect to talent. The show was in the afternoon with a small audience consisting of who you would expect. Tess overcame initial jitters, finished well and ultimately surprised herself with a second place finish.

Yesterday's show featured a rather large contingent of participants several of whom brought well rehearsed and committed performances. The show took place at 8:00 pm and the crowd seemed larger as it picked up casual interest from fair attendees who were there for the evening. Tess delivered what I thought was a poised, engaging and skilled performance of a more difficult and dramatic song that really required her to carry the song with almost no help from the spare audio backtrack. I came away impressed by how Tess had matured. She finished outside the top three, as did a couple of other girls who were impressive. Tess struggled a bit with some unrealistic expectations and had to sort out her feelings for awhile, but she eventually came round. Winning too early is a tricky thing. This was a good experience for Tess.