Local musician Shaela Miller tops in Project Wild

By Al Beeber - Lethbridge Herald on March 31, 2022.

LETHBRIDGE HERALDabeeber@lethbridgeherald.com

Second time was lucky for Lethbridge’s Shaela Miller as she was announced winner of the $100,953 grand prize in the Project Wild artist development series last weekend.
Miller earned the top award in the final season of the series after performing Saturday at Calgary’s King Eddy Hotel.
Kyle McKearney of Airdrie and Drew Gregory of Strathmore finished second and third respectively.
Miller said Wednesday the experience she gained from her first appearance in the competition helped her the second time around.
The winners were announced after the Saturday performances but Miller said she was more nervous waiting to hear the three finalists’ names being announced on a Calgary radio station.
The big winnings will enable Miller to put into place plans she already had for her career before Project Wild. But now she has the financial ability to get her music out to a wider audience.
“This means I can do it quicker and with the money backing me to market it in the biggest way I’ve ever been able to do in the past. It’s just going to help me further my career with having that kind of funding. I can hire the right publicist and grow my team even bigger to help get my music into more ears,” she said.
“I feel like I kind of needed (to learn) the first time around I guess and learn all the tools that I did that time to really understand the program and further my career,” said Miller.
“Even third place, you’re taking home a lot of money so I wasn’t nervous,” the final night, she said.
“I was having a great time,” said Miller who had a lot of support cheering her on.
“I was nervous to let them down if I didn’t take first place but I was content with any of the places,” she said.
When the third place winner was announced, Miller expected her name to be called second but instead McKearney was called to the stage and he immediately congratulated the Lethbridge singer.
She said all the artists were like a family.
“We seriously became like a Project Wild family. It’s insane, the camaraderie between us. What I loved so much about Project Wild is that’s its not competitive because you’re only competitive with yourself. It’s a competition but you’re scored on points, you’re scored on how well you do” on challenges, to complete a final report, performances and how a singer executes their marketing plan.
“So it’s not competitive with the other artists at all even though it’s a competition. We just supported each other through it all,” said Miller.

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