The lights are off at the Apollo Theater, but they’re still invested in sharing music. zoe_alliyah reports
The lights are off at the Apollo, but they’re still invested in sharing music. Photo: Roy Rochlin/Getty Images Timing has always been a part of the Apollo Theater’s lore. One of the many legends to come out of it, Luther Vandross, appeared at the famed Apollo Theater Amateur Night five times, once with a group, and didn’t win a single time. But the Apollo isn’t in the business of making stars. They’re building legends. And sometimes that requires being told to wait.
Instead of lining 125th Street in Harlem, hopefuls are filling Marion Caffey’s inbox. Amateur Night’s coordinator, Kathy Jordan Sharpton, sorts “thousands” of online auditions into their tried-and-true rating system, five folders labeled one through five — five being the most impressive and one being “the worst.” Then Caffey reviews every single one. “I go through those folders and watch them myself,” he explains.
Last November’s winner, Azumi Takahashi, started her journey to Amateur Night at 18 years old, when she left Japan to study gospel music in churches in New York City. She was in the audience at the Apollo in 2006 when she first heard the song that would win her the Super Top Dog title, making her the grand champion of the entire season, over ten years later: “And I Am Telling You I Am Not Going,” from the Broadway musical Dreamgirls.
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