BY BILL SAN ANTONIO
The Village of East Hills’ annual Labor Day concert and barbecue initially scheduled for Sunday was postponed until Monday due to heavy rains that sogged the concert’s setting on the baseball field at the Village Park.
Instead, Christina Grimmie and Matthew Schuler, former finalists of the NBC reality competition series “The Voice,” performed poolside before a packed crowd of East Hills residents.
“It was just such a reward after Sunday to have the weather we did and the turnout we did,” said Village Attorney William Burton. “The real key of whether you feel success or not is if you’ve got the people there, and the whole parking lot was filled.”
Grimmie, 20, auditioned for “The Voice” in February 2014 and advanced to the final round before finishing third behind winner Josh Kaufman and runner-up Jake Worthington.
Her 2011 independent EP “Find Me” debuted at No. 35 on the U.S. Billboard Top 200 chart and No. 11 on Billboard’s digital albums chart. Grimmie later toured with Selena Gomez in support of her 2013 full-length, “With Love.”
Schuler grew up outside Philadelphia and auditioned for “The Voice” during his second semester as a student at West Chester University of Pennsylvania. He was eliminated during Week 5 of the competition, finishing behind winner Tesanne Chin, runner-up Jacquie Lee and Will Champlin.
Schuler’s performance of Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah” reached No. 1 on iTunes and No. 40 on Billboard.
