A job at McDonald’s has given Carrie Vieweg a chance to live out her dreams of being a musician.
She has become one of 30 finalists in the “Voices of McDonald’s” contest, which is an American Idol-style singing contest for McDonald’s employees.
Vieweg works at the McDonald’s in Concord Township in northeast Ohio and is a freshman in music at Kent State.
“I have been singing my whole life. I have always wanted to be a music major in college,” Vieweg said in a phone interview.
At the urging of a friend, Vieweg entered a video of herself singing at the last minute.
“The last week you can enter, I sent a video in for the heck of it and I figured I am not going to get in.” Vieweg said.
This August, Vieweg found out that her video made it to the semi-finals of the competition. She was selected from more than 10,000 entrants across more than 53 counties as one of the top 30 entrants.
The fact the Vieweg made it to this round is amazing and everyone is so excited, said Ali Mandovi, owner of the McDonald’s that employees Vieweg.
Vieweg was required to submit another video to compete in the semi-finals, which is the last portion of the competition before 12 finalist are selected.
The 12 finalists for the competition are based on online voting at the “Voice of McDonald’s” Web site vom.mcdonalds.com. Vieweg can be seen singing Patsy Cline’s “I Fall to Pieces.” Anyone is eligible to vote, Vieweg said. Voting ends on Dec. 4.
If Vieweg makes it to the finals she will fly to Orlando, Fla. to attend the McDonald’s 2010 Worldwide Convention from April 10 through 22. There, finalists will perform live for judges and for an audience of more than 15,000.
While Vieweg hopes to make it to the finals she does not know what to expect. “I am pretty sure they are going to give us a list of songs that we have to choose from,” Vieweg said. “They take it round by round in this contest.”
The winner of the “Voices of McDonald’s” contest will receive a grand prize of $25,000, the first runner up will receive $10,000, and the second runner up will receive $5,000.
Vieweg will find out if she is one of the 12 global finalist Dec. 21, but encourages everyone to vote until the deadline.
