ETA Contests and Judging

If anybody would like to comment on this article to Cory Cooper and I am most certain that Cory would appreciate to hear from you all.
You can e-mail to him at ElvisExpert@aol.com



Hi Everyone,

With so many Elvis Tribute Contests that go on annually and the disappointing and sometimes downright shocking results that sometimes occur, I think its time that the fans, performers and people involved in these contests start a campaign to voice opinions on what appears to be a complete breakdown on the importance of who will be judging these competitions.

There is a tremendous amount of planning and organization that goes into putting Elvis Tribute Artists competitions together. I just feel there seems to be a lack of effort put forth on picking who is going to be doing the judging. I continually hear about people being upset over how the judging of a contest was. Being an Elvis fan alone I feel does not constitute the expertise needed to intelligently judge others in a contest. Of course basic knowledge is needed but do you know enough about Elvis, his mannerisms, stage presence, singing and overall persona to be able to accurately score a contestant in a competition? I feel sometimes a contestant will come out on stage, exaggerate their moves, shake their backside, make the crowd go nuts with yelling and screaming and that alone is enough to sway the judges to overlook other aspects of the judging and scoring process for the competition.

The judges for these events need to be able to pass a certain criteria themselves before being able to say their qualified to give a unbiased and experienced opinion on who is the best for each respective contest.

I know this might be difficult to do and each contest is ran independently but the organizers of these contests need to together to come up with a realistic plan on whos qualified to be a judge for their contest. If there is a basic criteria being followed by contest organizers to have the most qualified judges associated with their contest, then I feel these are the contests the performers will want to be involved and associated with. If you're trying to find the best of the best, doesn't it make sense that the judges should also be the best of the best as well?

How do you feel about this and do you think this is a good idea?

All The Best,

Cory Cooper
Elvis Historian, Consultant and Technical Advisor
ElvisExpert@aol.com
775-835-3909