WINNERS ANNOUNCED FOR SPIRITED WOMAN SINGING CONTEST

Spirited Woman held its first ever SPIRITED WOMAN SINGING CONTEST and announced our winners on Valentine's Day, 2007. You must listen to these women sing their versions of the Spirited Woman Song. They're all fantabulously talented, spirited, and oh-so wonderful to meet and to hear!

1st Place Winners

Listen to Alice Marie singing her version

ALICE MARIE, one of two first place winners is funny, charming, married, living in Manhattan with her husband and three-year-old daughter Amanda (the one with 10 personalities), and is a singer, former high school teacher, writer, editor, and presently a state-of-the-heart coach. Age 36, she's recorded two CD's, "Equilibrium" and "Angels Near," and she produces "Tea With Alice Marie" musical affirmations. Alice recently appeared on Candace Bushnell's radio show on Sirius called "Sex, Success, and Sensibility." Currently, she's working on another CD.

This was the first music contest she's entered in a long time. "I've been picked for showcases," she says, "but they're not quite contests, they have a different feel." She heard about the contest, through the newsletter, which she signed up for, after she and I became MySpace friends.  To find out more about Alice Marie, please visit: www.alicemarie.net

Q. Alice, why do you feel that you are a Spirited Woman?
A. The first thing that comes to mind is because I try. I'm able to put perfection aside and just go for it. I think sometimes that's what keeps us from being spirited - that fear of "is it going to look bad, am I going to sound bad."

Listen to Kay Pere singing her version

KAY PERE is a singer/songwriter, a visual artist, educator, writer, and all around creative soul. Married to Bill Pere, a Connecticut State Troubadour Emeritus, they reside in Mystic, Connecticut. She is the "fairy stepmother" to two kids, an active member of the Connecticut Songwriters Association, and the Associate Director of Local United Network to Combat Hunger (LUNCH), producing and performing in hundreds of benefit events, raising more than $500,000 to help people in need. She's produced her own CD, "Even Better Than Chocolate," and she's currently working on a second CD "The Dolphins Daughters." In fact, she's using her $100 first prize money toward completing the project.

When I talked to Kay, she sounded like an angel. Her voice is sweet, gentle, and even though she is in her early 40's - she sounds girlish. She's delightful. I found out that this is the first singing contest that she has entered. She said, "I'm not a big contest entering kind of person - I basically do what I do and I don't really set out to compete - this is something that looked like a lot of fun." It took her eight hours to record the song. To find out more about Kay Pere and to contact her please visit: www.kaypere.com

Q. Kay, why do you feel that you are a spirited woman?
A. I think it means being true to yourself and being unafraid to express that in the world and to use that to make a difference. That's what I'm doing - so I guess I am.

2nd Place Winner

Listen to Emily Henry singing her version 

EMILY HENRY , age 13, the second place winner is a unique mixture of bubbly enthusiasm and maturity. She lives in Westminster, Colorado with her mom, dad, three brothers and two sisters, is in the 7th grade, and has been home-schooled her whole life. She plays the cello (she use to play the piano), and she loves to sing in the kitchen with her mom and sister. When she grows up she wants to be in sales.

She entered the contest she says because "I had wanted a puppy for a long time and I was on Craigslist looking for one and I had seen your Spirited Woman thing and I kind of just looked at it and thought I was going to do it - then kind of forgot about it. It was Wednesday night and I found it, and I go, 'oh, that's cool, it's ending tonight.' I realized all I had to do was to just sing into the phone, so I called the number and I just did it."

Yeap, she's a natural for sales. She did get her puppy, named him Kodiac, and is now using her $50 prize money for a crate for him. This is the first singing contest she's ever entered but she won a poetry contest once. She says, "oh yes, my writing is very spirited, too. I like to write poems and short stories." To contact Emily Henry, e-mail her at: emgem11@msn.com 

Q. Emily, why do you feel that you are a spirited woman?
A. I just feel that I am different from a lot of people. I'm not your average person. I do a lot of things that people don't do. For instance, home schooling or playing cello. I'm a bubbly person, and so when I saw the Spirited Woman I was like "oh that totally explains me." Really, because I can just get out there and do it. I'm not really afraid to talk about my feelings, I'm not very embarrassed about things, I'm very wild - to me it means I have my own personality. I don't have a role model, I am just unique. I'm different from everybody else. And I have my own personality instead of copying off of someone else's.

3rd Place Winner

Listen to JeLaina Schmidt singing her version

To contact JeLaina Schmidt, e-mail her at: ichigo.penguin@gmail.com 

THANK YOU KAY, ALICE, EMILY, & JELAINA FOR SINGING YOUR HEART OUT, FLOWING FROM CREATIVITY AND GOING FOR IT!!!!