Elvis Lives in Collinsville! (Sort Of.)
The sublimely Onion-esque headline in Saturday's Post-Dispatch probably says it all:
Like everything else Elvis, the Ultimate Elvis Tribute contest is a serious business. (If you have any doubts, just take a drive down I55 and check out Graceland.) A panel of judges reviews each contestant's similarity to the King in terms of vocals, appearance, performance, stage presence and overall performance, and a Memphis accounting firm tabulates the results.
As this year's Ultimate Elvis, Cherry wins $20,000 and a three-week engagement at the Legends in Concert show at the Lumière Place casino. It is a culmination of a career in Elvis-tribute that began in childhood, but really took off in the early 1990s when Cherry won a series of contests at Blueberry Hill. This year, Cherry got laid off from his job as a welder at American Steel in Granite City, which, he told the P-D, gave him more time to work on his Elvis.
Let's be clear: Cherry is not an Elvis impersonator. He is an Elvis tribute artist. The differences are crucial. As he explains in this video, he doesn't think he is Elvis. He doesn't want anyone else to think he is Elvis. He just wants to honor the spirit of the man.
Cherry prefers to enact Elvis ca. 1970, the not-quite-fat-but-still-jumpsuited incarnation. Appropriately, his competition-winning number was "Suspicious Minds", originally recorded in 1969.
 |
But let's elaborate.
The local man is named Bill Cherry. He hails from Collinsville. On August 13,
at the culmination of Elvis Week in Memphis, he won the 2009 Ultimate
Elvis Tribute contest.Like everything else Elvis, the Ultimate Elvis Tribute contest is a serious business. (If you have any doubts, just take a drive down I55 and check out Graceland.) A panel of judges reviews each contestant's similarity to the King in terms of vocals, appearance, performance, stage presence and overall performance, and a Memphis accounting firm tabulates the results.
As this year's Ultimate Elvis, Cherry wins $20,000 and a three-week engagement at the Legends in Concert show at the Lumière Place casino. It is a culmination of a career in Elvis-tribute that began in childhood, but really took off in the early 1990s when Cherry won a series of contests at Blueberry Hill. This year, Cherry got laid off from his job as a welder at American Steel in Granite City, which, he told the P-D, gave him more time to work on his Elvis.
Let's be clear: Cherry is not an Elvis impersonator. He is an Elvis tribute artist. The differences are crucial. As he explains in this video, he doesn't think he is Elvis. He doesn't want anyone else to think he is Elvis. He just wants to honor the spirit of the man.
Cherry prefers to enact Elvis ca. 1970, the not-quite-fat-but-still-jumpsuited incarnation. Appropriately, his competition-winning number was "Suspicious Minds", originally recorded in 1969.
Write Comment
Email to Friend
Print Article
