WHITEFISH — Five artists will take the stage in Whitefish in the annual Flathead's Got Talent competition on Thursday evening; and after a year of live music hanging in limbo, the artists are ready to perform.
Whether you like rap, country, EDM or even acoustic artists -- you can find all of those genres in this year's Flathead’s Got Talent Competition. The winner earns $1,000 and the chance to open for headlining artists at the Northwest Montana Fair.
The competition is a return to normality after the pandemic forced many local artists to think even more creatively and for Whitefish native artist, J.J. Kind, that meant online shows.
“So, we tried to do online live shows and it's just not the same it’s a very different vibe and feels like you're playing to an empty room,”said Jacob "J.J. Kind" Courtford.
But now JJ Kind is taking the stage at Caseys Whitefish to perform rap and electronic music on a different level, "that is nothing new to me and I have never performed this music anywhere ever,” said Kind.
Playing alongside artists like Sunlight Black, a rock band, Tabitha Spencer, Alex Coulter and Luke Dowler & The Midnight Conversations, J.J. feels his music will bring a different genre to the Flathead scene.
“It's going to be weird and fun because all the other bands are rockers, and this stuff is going to be different,” said Kind.
The excitement doesn't stop at current competitors as previous winners like Andrew Sweeney and Rheannon are coming back to be emcees.
“I enjoy seeing the different kinds of music, hearing the talent that's in the Valley is always exciting for me. It's so diverse. And I'm really looking forward to doing that again this year,”said Rheannon, a Flathead valley artist.
Sweeney just wants to remind the artists regardless of who wins this competition, it still brings great opportunities to the artists.
“I hope for all of the people that compete in this competition is that they take whatever level they reached and use that to market themselves locally and know that every step is another step closer to having a career in music,” said Andrew Sweeney, a local artist.
