By Sarah Rae

N.B. woman wins contest to sing at Big Valley Jamboree

Aug 3, 2016 | 6:00 AM

A local woman won her way through several competitions for the chance to sing in front of thousands of people.

Rene L’Heureux, from North Battleford, won Big Valley Jamboree’s karaoke contest in Alberta last weekend and received the opportunity to sing on the main stage Sunday, July 31, before Gord Bamford’s set.

“It was pretty nerve-racking; the rain was coming down and it was not the most ideal weather, but it was really exciting,” she said. “I was pretty honoured to be selected out of all those people to get the crowd pumped up for Gord Bamford.”

L’Heureux sang Linda Ronstadt’s When Will I Be Loved and Sugarland’s Settlin for roughly 9,000 people.

After beating 13 other karaoke singers from the festival, she competed against 12 people who won different competitions around Alberta. L’Heureux said although there was some stiff competition, she wasn’t too surprised by her win.

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“I think after the second set of competition and seeing how the crowd was reacting to me, you really feed off a crowd, and I knew once they were really cheering and I had a lot of support from the fans, I felt really good and I think that really showed in my performance, so I was pretty confident,” she said.

She said she accidentally walked into the competition last year to sing karaoke without knowing she was competing, but was selected. She didn’t make it to the end though, so this year she said her husband was adamant she try again.

L’Heureux is no stranger to the stage, as she’ll be performing with Trooper when they play the Gold Eagle Casino on September 2. She sang with them a couple of years ago after the band saw a YouTube video of her covering one of their songs. The band hit her up again this summer to join them on stage in September.

Sarah Rae is battlefordsNOW’s court and crime reporter. She can be reached at Sarah.Rae@jpbg.ca or tweet her @sarahjeanrae.