Lexi Briones wins Glen Cove Teen Idol title

Lexi Briones, 13, took home the first Glen Cove Downtown Sounds Teen Idol title, earning her four hours of recording studio time at Tiki Recording Studio and a $750 check from the Downtown Sounds committee.

Patricia Holman, executive director of the Downtown Business Improvement District, thanked the Glen Cove community for its support and participation in the competition.

“Everybody had to come together to give this opportunity to the kids,” Holman said.

The contest was judged weekly by three industry professionals, with audience participation determining which contestants advanced to the next round. 

The Teen Idol competition was created to give the youth of Glen Cove a platform on which to showcase their talents.

As the weeks went on, the competition was whittled down until there were just two competitors left — Shye Roberts, 15, and Briones.

“I feel so blessed and so thankful to be here to say that I was able to accomplish so much [in] so little time,” Briones said after learning that she had won. “I’m not going to lie and say that it’s been easy every week and that I never came across any hiccups, but overall it was such an amazing dream. What also made this such a beautiful experience was my support system.”

Briones began singing as a young girl, and received praise from friends, family and even entertainment-world insiders.

Her mother, Analis, said she always knew her daughter was talented. With her big win, she is ready to get behind her and see where her talent will take her. 

“She’s always been singing, and any performance she would do at school, she would have people wait for her after the performance to compliment her,” Analis said.

“But she never really took it seriously. I thought she was too young and then Teen Idol came around.”

Analis said her daughter is ready to seriously pursue singing.

“She’s doing things by herself,” Analis explained, “and, I think we’re gonna be moving forward with it.”

The contest judges included, Eddie Profet, a professional musician and a member of The Doobie Others; Lou-Ann Thompson, a board member of the Glen Cove Downtown Business Improvement District, who is a singer/songwriter and musician; and Fred Guarino, owner of Tiki Recording Studios in Glen Cove, chair of the Downtown Sounds Committee and vice president of the Glen Cove Downtown BID.

Profet previously judged the Long Beach Idol several years ago before the pandemic. He said the competition was difficult to judge and the three judges had their hands full with the task.

“It was one of the toughest experiences I’ve ever had judging,” Profet said. 

“They were all amazing, all of them, and they should all be very proud.

“There were no losers.”

He said the exposure the teens received by participating in the competition will help them.

“We started out with 10 very talented, young, young teenagers and it was difficult from day one,” Profet said. “We really needed to go over that video and we had to kind of huddle and try and figure out who’s gonna go out to the next level. It was very hard because they were all very good.

“I hope they’re not deterred in any way, and they keep going because they’ve got a lot of talent and they’ve got a nice road ahead, all of them.”