On Saturday February 7, Monica Lenius was named runner-up of the Door County Idol contest held at the Door County Auditorium in Gibralter. I interviewed Monica about her recent success and this is what she had to say...

Q: How long did you prepare for Door County Idol?

A: I was told I was a contestant before Christmas break so I started thinking of songs [I had to perform] then. The two weeks before Door County Idol was more intense [between] preparation and figuring out what I was going to wear!

Q: How did you go about choosing your two songs to perform?

A: That was the hardest part, the narrowing down of my song choices. I knew I wanted to something I’d written and the Alicia Keys song just kind of popped out at me because it was more blues and more my style.

Q: Why did you decide to perform your own original song?

A: Doing something I’ve written is more personal. It means more tome to sing about something I’ve gone through and know the story behind it, [rather] than sing someone else’s experience and try to make it my own.

Q: Was it difficult to compose a song and then play it in front of an audience?

A: Composing isn’t really the difficult part. It’s the playing that makes me nervous. Everyone has an opinion of you when you perform, but when you perform something you’ve written the opinion is more personal and it makes me more nervous.

Q: What was it like competing against other Southern Door Students?

A: It was fun, it didn’t really feel like we were competing against each other. We would carpool up to Gibralter and sing together it was a good time.

Q: What were the other contestants like? Did you make new friends?

A: I knew Lily and Ben from the Rotary Interact Club and they’re nice and usually full of energy. I had never met Kristen before Door County Idol and she’s amazing! I could listen to her voice all day, and she’s really modest but when she sings you’re like “Why the heck are you modest? You are awesome!”

Q: How did you feel when they announced your name as a runner-up?

A: It all happened so fast and I was not expecting it. Everyone was so good and the head people kept talking about how close it was. When they called my name I was so shocked I just said, “Wow!” I didn’t really know what to do.

Q: What was the amount of your prize money and what will you use it for?

A: I got $250 for 2nd place, I’ll probably just put it in my bank. I’m trying to save up to back pack in Europe after high school so any money I earn pretty much goes for that.

Q: Would you recommend other students to try Door County Idol?

A: I would definitely! You might feel shy or nervous, but it’s such a great experience and really gives you confidence to keep performing.

Q: Do you plan to have a musical career?

A: That’s a good question... All I know as of right now is that no matter what, music is always going to be some part of my life. If music will be my career… I don’t know we’ll see what happens.