Five finalists in the Pioneers Got Talent event, performed at the Pioneer Crossing on April 8 to show off their talents in front of their fellow students.

Brian O’ Sullivan, a Los Angeles singer/comedian, hosted this year’s finale by performing his own material between acts and introducing all five contestants. First up was acoustic cover performers Kyle Smith and Alex Walker who covered the songs “Skinny Love” and “Bright eyes.” After them came Jennifer Tanaka who played her ukulele as she sang her own mash up of “My Girl” and “Starving.” Next, rapper Tune showed up performed his own original songs. The next to perform was Hailey Bradshaw, who wowed the audience with her hula-hooping skills. To close the show Tripple J (Jessie Jones jr.) busted some moves, dancing hip-hop style.

Campus Programming and Relations have held this event for more than five years. The whole process of this event was organized by the CPR team and they did a lot to ensure that they got the best out of this year’s talent.

“Auditions focused on recruitment of UW-Platteville students that are willing to showcase their talents on stage. Three judges then collaborated to decide on their top 6 favorite artists. We had a variety of fun acts from auditions anything from bands to a speed painter. Everyone had a blast and the Pioneer Haus was packed. Once the finalists were chosen, Tara and Tiffany worked with the artist and invited them to the Finale. Aislynn and Tiffany have reserved the room, developed and implemented a marketing campaign, picked a theme, chosen prizes, and been in contact with the artist,” senior business administration major and CPR lead event producer Kassidy Kohout said in an email interview.

The talents onstage did well, as the audience applause showed after each performance. When asked, junior elementary education major Jennifer Tanaka explained what it was like to get up on stage and perform.

“I practiced that mash-up once a day for two weeks before the finale. My favorite part is just getting the guts to go up on stage and perform in front of everyone. That’s something I haven’t done since high school,” Tanaka said.

Almost as impressive as the entire talent show was the number of students showing up to cheer the contestants on.

“It was cool to see the variety of talents that people I go to school with have. I love going to this kind of stuff and seeing what talents people have,” fifth year senior computer science major Evan Gjerde said.

Even though everyone in the finale was extremely talented and the crowd enjoyed every performance, it was a competition, thus a winner had to be crowned.  Bradshaw and her hula-hoop routine received first,  Tanaka took second and the duo of  Smith and Walker placed third.