Regular Wicked Hop performer and Port Washington resident Marc Ballini is on his way to getting recognized on a national level because of a singer/songwriter competition. Hilton’s “Your passion. Your song. Your journey.” competition has named its top five finalists and left it to the public to decide who will be named the winner. Ballini joins the four other finalists -- who come from California, New York and Chicago -- as they await the decision Friday.
The prize included a meeting with an Atlantic Records A&R executive as well up-and-coming British singer/songwriter James Blunt.
But Ballini’s participation happened more on a whim.
“I was actually passed the info about the contest through GMR Marketing. That's basically how I found out about it,” Ballini says. “I received the info about the contest and I only had a couple of days to get the recording and the DVD ready. It was last minute that I heard about it and I got a call back two to two and a half weeks after and they let me know I was one of the finalists.”
But he considers this another opportunity to get word out about himself.
“The way I look at it, it’s best to have as many avenues to go down and this is just a great opportunity. It’ll be a great connection for whoever wins.”
If people head over to the Web site (www.hiltonjourneys.com , click on the New Features tab), the five finalists have a biography as well as a video of them singing one of their originals. Ballini is shown singing the song “Possible” accompanying himself on a keyboard.
“I decided to submit that (song because) it’s more of a brand new song of mine. I wrote it in last month and a half,” he says. “It’s more brand new for me to submit and I think it’s more of a promising song. Feedback people give is that they really like that tune.”
He says it’s also a song that is closer to him.
“It was written about a girl I’m dating right now who I met over the summer and who is, absolutely terrific,” Ballini says. “I don’t want to say too much, she just means the world to me and I couldn’t help but write the song. The song just came to me as did she.”
Right now, Ballini says he’s crossing his fingers as he waits for the decision.
“This is the first contest I’ve ever entered as far as my music. I’ll take away the experience, that hope that I’m going to win,” he says. “I think most of all take all the support that I’ve gotten. It’s made me seriously beside myself with all the support. I’ll definitely take that away form the contest.”
Going about this as normal, Ballini will actually be in Tennessee when the competition’s winner will be announced. He’s opening for the legendary B.B. King.
“The B.B. King show came through my management basically. My manager called me up and said he could get thus slot for me and I was completely blown away,” Ballini says. “To be sharing a night with B.B. King is completely a dream. He’s a legend, he’s a blues legend and he still graces us with his presence. While he is still around is any musician’s dream.”
Ballini will also be opening for country singer Josh Gracin at Carroll College on Nov. 11. The gig just fell into his lap, but he says that he remembers liking Gracin during his “American Idol” days.
He says that he has always been involved in music.
“Music runs on my dad’s side of the family, on my dad’s side from Italy. His grandmother was an opera singer,” Ballini says. “It passed down to my father through my brother and me. My parents started me on piano when I was 4, I started guitar at the end of high school and have been gigging ever since. Music is my passion, my love, all I know, all do.”
Originally from Des Plaines, Ill., Heather moved to Milwaukee to earn a B.A. in journalism from Marquette University. With a tongue-twisting last name like Leszczewicz, it's best to go into a career where people don't need to say your name often.
However, she's still sticking to some of her Illinoisan ways (she won't reform when it comes to things like pop, water fountain or ATM), though she's grown to enjoy her time in the Brew City.
Although her journalism career is still budding, Heather has had the chance for some once-in-a-lifetime interviews with celebrities like actor Vince Vaughn and actress Charlize Theron, director Cameron Crowe and singers Ben Kweller and Isaac Hanson of '90s brother boy band Hanson.
Heather's a self-proclaimed workaholic but loves her entertainment. She's a real television and movie fanatic, book nerd, music junkie, coffee addict and pop culture aficionado.
