Joe Orchulli II wins first place

in singing competition

When Joe Orchulli II, fondly referred to by his friends as Joey O, picked up a cassette tape of Michael W. Smith years ago, he never imagined he would be invited into the presence of the world famous recording artist.

"When I saw that SOULFEST, which is the largest Christian music festival in New England, was running an online contest last week awarding the best video entry singing their favorite "Smitty" song, four front row VIP seats to a Michael W. Smith concert and a special "meet and greet" with the artist, my first response was, "Oh no! WHY did they have to put THAT out there right now!?!" as I had plenty to do already, but I knew that I had to do it even though I had only one night to prepare the video," Orchulli said.

Furthermore, when he was in Wal-Mart the same evening he heard about the contest, the song he thought about doing came on the radio not once, but twice within fifteen minutes and he said, "Okay God, okay! I will do it!"

Orchulli said that when he began his professional singing career in the Contemporary Christian music field in the early ’90s, one of the first songs he sang was "Place in This World" by Michael W. Smith.

"The very first concert where I sang that song featured Jim Daneker, a friend of mine who worked at the local music store in the area I grew up in and his dream was to play in Michael W. Smith’s band someday.

Jim’s dream came true as he has been Michael’s keyboardist and programmer for 13 years now traveling the world many times over.

"So to prepare for the contest, I went into my studio, set up some lights, candles, the video camera, etc. and recorded myself singing the song. When I got a reasonable take, I thought that it was ‘okay’ but I was still far from happy with it. It was more like a warm up for me and I still had a couple of control issues to work out in the vocal but there was no time. Every artist is his or her own worst critic but I showed a trustworthy friend and inquired what they thought about me entering it and they said, ‘Do it,’ so I did.

"My hope was that people would be encouraged by the song and apparently, that is what happened."

One look at the comments on the Web page the video is displayed on confirms that along with the winning number of votes.

"I was visiting a friend in the hospital for two consecutive days over this past weekend right after I entered the contest and had very little sleep so I had no clue as to what was going on with the voting toward the end. When I was finally able to log onto the SOULFEST Facebook page to see what had happened, the lead title said, ‘Congratulations to Joey O for winning…’ and my jaw hit the floor and I started to cry in disbelief.

"It’s interesting because I had just won five awards from the Maine Press Association in October for my photography and journalism and asked Jesus, ‘What about my music? Am I wasting my time?

"I still don’t think mine was the best video, but as the Word says, God’s strength is made perfect in weakness and He chooses the foolish things to confound the wise and God knows I can be foolish! (Ha ha!)

"I have no clue except that I know that I worked very hard for this and feel extremely honored and humbled by the outcome of the contest." Orchulli said.

"Votes for Joey O were still coming in the day after the contest was over," said Vice President of Marketing for SOULFEST, Roger Proulx.

"Sitting in the front row of Michael's concert this past Sunday at Lowell Memorial Auditorium in Lowell, Massachusetts was very peaceful and encouraging. It was a great feeling knowing what got me there. I really want to thank all of my friends who voted for me as it wouldn't have happened without them. Meeting with Michael backstage was pretty cool too. I also got to visit with my friend Jim again so that was pretty awesome to see how far he has come." Orchulli said.

Joey had performed in 2007 at SOULFEST, an annual four day festival set in the White Mountains of New Hampshire which boasts famous artists from all over the world including Jars of Clay, Newsboys, Skillet, Family Force Five and many more.

Joey O also will be performing a special concert at Damariscotta Baptist Church’s coffeehouse, "He Brews," on Saturday, November 21 beginning at 7 p.m. Admission is free.

To see his winning video entry, Click Here!

For more information and to hear Joey O's music,

go to www.myspace.com/joeyomusic