Mormon 'idol' being crowned

Late last summer, after David Archuleta and

Brooke White made it to the finals of the 2008 "American Idol"

competition, Bob Wood began to wonder just how many other singers

raised in the LDS culture had that kind of talent ...

It was more than just idol curiosity.

Bob is in charge of brainstorming ways to get people to log in to Mormontimes.com, the relatively new online appendage to the Deseret News.

He couldn't think of a better draw than music.

And so was the framework laid for the first and probably annual

Mormon Times Showcase, a contest that over the winter invited musicians

of all ages and genres to submit to the Web site videos of themselves

playing their original music.

Hundreds responded, and not just from the United States. Artists

sent in their A stuff from as far away as the Philippines, New Zealand,

Australia, England, Germany, Ireland, Norway and Canada.

Visitors to the Web site were invited to watch the videos, listen to the music and cast votes for their favorites.

In true "American Idol" style, interest mushroomed. The first week

saw 9,000 hits. At the height of the voting, the Web site was getting

over 120,000 hits per week.

This past week, balloting closed and the field was trimmed to the

top six vote-getters, all of whom will perform at a live concert

scheduled for this Thursday at 7:30 p.m. at the Covey Fine Arts Center

in downtown Provo (tickets and information available at, if you hadn't

already guessed, mormontimes.com).

After everyone has performed, the winner will be announced and

awarded the $5,000 first prize. Second place will receive $2,000 and