By Anna Mefford
When I saw Kalil Townes up on the stage at the variety show, the first thing that came to mind was: “Troy Bolton.” After all, he’s mainly been known as the star athlete on the football team.
I told him about the Troy Bolton connection a few days later. His response: “I’m better than that chump.”
The 2024 Variety Show was a major success this year, featuring the typical lineup of solo singers, dance competitions, and a magic show. However, out of all the performances perhaps the most unexpected one was Senior Kalil Townes’s surprise solo.
Going into the performance Kalil did not tell anyone that he would be a part of the show, and safe to say many people did not expect it.
Growing up, Kalil first found his love for singing at the age of 4 at his elementary school, Seeds of Faith Christian Academy. At this school, Kalil performed in many Christian plays and musicals, playing the roles of Moses, Paul, and even Jesus.
Throughout his childhood he always loved Micheal Jackson. However, as he got older he started to really enjoy Khalid. “His range is similar to mine,” he said, “so I was able to sing a lot of his songs.”
When I asked him why he chose to sing “Get You” by Daniel Cesar at the Variety show, he explained that he just really liked the song and was listening to it from his sister’s playlist.
“It was easy for me to sing which I needed because I haven’t sung in three years. So my range is pretty sucky right,” he said.
Kalil first decided to sign up for the Variety Show because he intends to do the musical in the spring. (Affirming my Troy Bolton reference) “So I needed to be on stage before I did that,” he said.
He added that he wanted to do the musical senior year because football would be over and because he grew up doing performing arts and wanted to give it one last go.
The variety show itself did not intimidate Kalil as, apparently, nothing does.
I wondered if he was worried about his football teammates’ reaction to the show. “I love those guys and they loved me, so I wasn’t really too concerned that they would actually have anything super duper negative,” he said. “Of course, they were going to joke and whatnot, but I don’t think it was going to be anything.”
Reflecting on the experience, Kalil explained how he was not exactly 100% pleased with his performance and will definitely be back on that stage.
“I think I did all right, but definitely could have been better,” he said. “I’ll probably do one or two more. I think there’s another talent show. I’ll probably do that and then I’ll definitely do the musical, so hopefully it gets better.”
