Following on the heels of popular “text your vote” shows like “American Idol,” the Apollo Amateur Night has decided to “modernize the way fans vote for their favorite contestant.”
Merging tradition with technology, four finalists will be selected live at the
Theater through traditional audience ‘applause’ voting. Beginning immediately after the show and running through to the following Tuesday at 5 p.m., text message voting will be open to fans across the country to select their favorite from among the final four. The finalist with the fewest votes will be eliminated and the remaining three will advance to the next round.
In addition to audience members in attendance, Verizon Wireless customers with TXT Messaging-capable phones can participate by visiting the Apollo Theater’s website and viewing video clips of the most recent competition. To cast their votes family, friends and fans of contestants can simply send a text message to “Apollo” (276556) and, in the body of the message, type their selection: STAR1, STAR2, STAR3 or STAR4 and press ‘Send.’ The winners will be announced on stage the following Amateur Night and also on the website the following Thursday.
For each vote cast, Verizon Wireless customers will be charged 99 cents and a portion of the charge will go toward the restoration of the Apollo Theater. The Theater launched the first phase of its refurbishment in 2005, at an estimated cost of $25 million. To date, the Apollo renovation is America’s most expensive and advanced refurbishment of a landmark theater.
Winners of the first ‘text to vote’ competition will be announced this Wednesday, June 13th, live at the Apollo.
For more information on how you can cast your vote visit: Apollo Theater
Lighten Up
June 13, 2007
Lillias White? Wasn’t she in Dreamgirls?
Hugo
June 13, 2007
yea i think things are polarizing a bit too much when it comes to the black vs white thing. art is art. no matter what color you are. you either like it or not. the fact is that people of all color come to apollo and give their opinion, albeit vociferously, on what they like and don’t like. the people are not there to judge “black” performances but art performances as a whole. in that regard anyone is entitled to their opinion.i mean you got a whole movement of japanese folks who have all the hip hop mags we got and they can pop and lock with the best of them.i don’t see anyone complaining about that…cuz it’s obviously generating serious demand and revenues. are we supposed to say “you can’t like that music” or “you can’t dance to that music cuz you’re not black”. Come on! If we’re really going to split hairs then why not bash all the latinos who rap or like rap because technically it’s not our music.For God’s sake! this post was about a new way to get in your opinion of what’s being performed.if anything it brings things up to the 21st century, opens up the apollo to even more exposure and generates more interest, generating in the end more revenues for a harlem-rooted institution. let’s look at the big picture for once!
Anonymous
June 13, 2007
This is great! Lily Whites all over America now have a vote in the talent produced from a Harlem Institution!
Perhaps we can have lily White people also vote on the fashions Harlem Clothing Designers are coming up with, I’m sure a lily White boy in Arizona knows Harlem Fashion style, fa shizzle.
When White people start having a vote and say on anything that’s traditionally the domain of Black culture, it’s over for us. You all know the “Fish Hole” on 145th and 8th or so? Some of the best Fried Fish in Harlem. Zagat’s ain’t going there, don’t know nuthin’ about – ya dig?
I love you White people, I just don’t want you having a vote on Black cultural taste. No vote, no text, no review, no say.
Letting White People have a say on anything Black art and culture results in WAYNE BRADY. Hells-to-tha-No!
ac
June 13, 2007
im so sick of every damn thing on this board coming down to the same old disagreemnt. dont we have anything better to talk about/debate about/worry about/laugh about???? no…every single post turns into “black people own harlem” “black people dont own harlem” same ole same old.
im bored. and im out.
Divine1906
June 13, 2007
Excuse me?
I can’t really evaluate what I think about the Apollo’s idea, but don’t be so quick to lecture long time Harlemites about how they should feel about the Apollo.
We were here supporting the Apollo, contributing to it and keeping it going when many of you didn’t even know where it was or were too scared to venture above 110th Street to visit it.
And to scold us about segregation is laughable. Don’t you dare. You think we chose to be segregated?
Look, just be honest. Rental prices have driven you out of other parts of Manhattan and Downtown Brooklyn and Harlem is the best alternative (God forbid you should end up in that foreign land called the Bronx). So now you’re going to tell Black folks in this part of town how to live in a “free” society”. Oh really now?
Don’t believe that Harlem was some kind of black Calcutta before you arrived. There was life, laughter, music, art, family and love here for a long time before you got here.
anon
June 13, 2007
What about all those Japanese tourists in the audience, should be told they are the wrong color and not to vote?
I think not, for better or worse, the institutions of Harlem and individual Harlemites have to accept Harlem is not a segregated neighborhood.
Many people of all colors love the Apollo, and making sure the Apollo keeps moving with the times will insure it has a place in the future.
I support the future success of the Apollo and hope it will continue to be a permanent feature of 125th Street.
Anonymous
June 13, 2007
Bad idea and part of the diminishing of one more Harlem Institution, all for money. The province of determining who moves forward has been uniquely that Harlem audience, and only that Harlem audience, and no one else mattered, you had to cater to and appeal to the standards of Harlemites exclusively!
Now? A white girl in Boise, Idaho or Denver, Colorado now has a vote, a say, on who stays and goes at the Apollo. Huh? That’s what this amounts to, as if that White girl knows and is positioned to determine Apollo & Harlem credibility? Yeah, right.
Grand ‘Ol Opry in Nashville Tennessee? My Black butt has now business determining which Country and Western Acts have “Nashville Credibility”, it cuts both ways.