Competing against more than 200 contestants in the KC Superstar competition, senior Dylan Martin was crowned the 2013 KC Superstar by audience vote, winning $7,500 in scholarship money.

The show, produced by the Jewish Community Center, brings in high school students across the metro area to sing for the prize.

“KC Superstar is similar to American Idol but for high school students in the greater Kansas City area,” Martin said.

Martin said he heard about KC Superstar through Choral Music teacher Kevin Coker, who really promoted this opportunity to him.

There were three different rounds in this competition and all the contestants were told to sing different forms of music each round, Martin said.

“The first round was acapella and I sang ‘Make it Mine’ by Jason Mraz. Then I went on to the semi-finals and it was karaoke and in that round I sang ‘Everything’ by Michael Buble,” Martin said. “The finals then consisted of 2 group numbers and we sang ‘Everybody Talks’ by Neon Trees and ‘Anything Could Happen’ by Ellie Goulding.”

Martin said he of course wanted to win it all, but that he went into this with no intent of making it all the way.

“Quite frankly I wasn’t competing for first place. I figured that I made it to the finals and that was about it,” Martin said. “That was a good enough accomplishment for me.”

Martin said that he had no idea he was going to be crowned the winner of the KC Superstar competition.

“I was really shocked more than anything,” Martin said. “It will help my family a lot with tuition.”

Although this was a competitive competition, Martin said that he made a ton of great friends throughout this experience.

“All the finalists were phenomenal and very fun to work with, so we were very good friends by the end of it,” Martin said.