36 Winner (1/2)

Just like everybody else the final contestant to go on stage was given two minutes, after this time he came back in the room and was asked to wait, this was the time allowed to the judges to discuss the winner and also the audience to vote, the most important part was of course the audience vote as the judges had a very small impact on the final result.

In the waiting room nobody could stay calm, some were walking around the room, other played with their phones, other couldn't stop their legs from trembling, everybody showed pressure in a different way. Even Sam wasn't exempt from this as his legs were trembling too, Julie was sitting on a table and was rolling her phone in her hand, she liked to talk big but of course she was in the same situation as everybody, losing here meant a lot, the other contestants weren't like Sam who had the system to learn anything he wanted very fast, they had to train for months just to come here, it was a considerable loss of time for all the finalists. All the efforts would be worth it only if they won the 100 000€, in fact it wasn't completely true as everybody since the semi finals had already been scouted by big companies whatever they did, even Sam had got a few contract proposals by small french record labels.

He thought about accepting but usually these contracts had a time limit, for exemple you had to stay 2 years or release 2 albums before leaving the company, he didn't want that as it would take too long and it wasn't profitable for him, it was different for each label but some took from 60 to 80% of the income the artist generate, for the moment he didn't plan to join any, maybe sometime in the future but that would have to wait as he had other plans right now.

After awhile the MC came into the room followed by a cameraman and said

”Everybody please follow me, the judges will announce the results now.”

Leading them he had a smile on his face but none of the people following him were smiling, they all looked down and walked nervously. A few had given up on their hope to win as they knew their own limits but most still had expectations.

They arrived on stage under the lights and the applauses of the audience only making them more nervous, 100 000€ wasn't a small sum, most people never had that sum ready in their life, living day by day they could accumulate it in years but nobody was patient enough.

”Welcome back everybody, the audience's votes have been counted and the judges also decided on their winner, are you all ready for the results ? Remember that even if you lost there is nothing to worry about as you guys are all very talented !”

Said one of the female judges, everybody nodded as even if they weren't ready they would have to hear it anyway.

”Last place first with 1,88% of the votes : Thomas, your dance was great, the only issue in my opinion is that you couldn't bring us something new and we felt like we had already seen what you showed us, you should try something new to and implementing it into your break dance.”

The guy looked like he didn't believe it, he knew he wouldn't get first place but he was ranked last, he couldn't hold his tears and went backstage without saying anything, after all the effort before and during the show he had put, this was a big blow to his self confidence.

One by one people's votes percentage were announced, nobody left like the first one but some still couldn't hold back their tears.

The magician made it to the 4th place and Moussa, the hip hop dancer ranked 5th. In fact the ranking for them wasn't important as nobody would get anything, the only one that would gain a prize will be the first ranked so ranking 5th and 10th was the same, except the pride that a 5th place brought of course.

Finally everybody's name had been announced except Sam and Julie, she looked at him but he didn't seem to care and was looking at the judge holding the list waiting for her to announce the winner.

”Until now only around 10 percents of the votes have been distributed, 90 percent is shared between those two what the hell...”

Some people in the public were thinking, this was an insane result, it meant that there was such a big talent gap between the first two and the other eight finalists.

”Ninth... Julie, you were close to the first place, I'm very conflicted as I'm not going to lie I voted for you but the audience didn't think the same as me, you got 31% of the votes.”

This obviously meant only one thing, Sam was ranked first with 49%, Julie couldn't believe it

”Wait wait ! It's not possible right ? Why does someone that sing covers have more votes than me ?!”

Of course she couldn't see what happened from the waiting room so she didn't know, the audience and the judges looked at her weirdly, even if he actually won by singing a cover she didn't have any right to contest their decision.