A Sunday Star is born

Marsha Bailey of Raleigh takes title in tight race

Your votes are in, and this year's "Sunday Star" winner is Marsha Bailey from Raleigh's Covenant Church International.

The contest began with last month's solicitation of entries from area religious singers. Submissions came in from 32 entrants, which we narrowed to five finalists and put to online voting.

Bailey, a secretary at Raleigh's Mount Vernon Middle School, won for a jazzy piano-and-vocal rendition of Louisiana gospel singer Vicki Yohe's "You Amaze Me."

Danica Zoeller, an eighth grader from Raleigh's West Millbrook Middle School, finished a close second. Her entry was an a cappella performance of Aselin Debison's "The Gift," recorded Christmas Eve at Raleigh's Forest Hills Baptist Church. Khedron Mims, a barber who attends Durham's Bethel Family Worship Center, came in third with a contemporary-sounding R&B original called "Please Save Me."

Unlike last year's "Sunday Star" race, this year's voting was tight. Entering the final day, only eight votes separated the top two. When voting ended, Bailey's winning margin was 87 votes out of 2,643 cast.

That's a pretty good result for her first-ever recording.

"I've been singing at church for a while," Bailey says. "It's been my place to strengthen my vocal skills and become more confident. Not in a bigheaded conceited way, more like being encouraged and supported. To hear from so many people lets me know that it's time to move forward with music as a ministry. I definitely want to do more recording."

Given the close margin of victory, Bailey's get-out-the-vote efforts probably helped her cause. Bailey, a 31-year-old single mother with two young sons, used her weekly church bulletin to spread the word about the contest. She also sang her nominated song at Covenant's Sunday service after reaching the finals.

"Getting into this contest has been a great encouragement," she says. "It's made my desire to keep going forward with it increase. I've heard from so many people I'd not heard from since childhood. I've had people e-mail to ask me to sing at their wedding, or at other churches. It's been amazing."