Maria Mazzola won the inaugural NAHB Star! talent contest last year and sang the national anthem to kick-off the 2010 NAHB International Builders' Show.

NAHB has reprised last year’s popular “American Idol” and online voting-style competition to find the NAHB member or family member who can best belt out the national anthem to kick off the NAHB International Builders’ Show for 2011, which will be held on Jan. 12-15 in Orlando.

The NAHB Star! talent contest, open to “amateur status” singers, begins Monday, Aug. 2.

To enter, NAHB members and their immediate family members should submit entry forms and audition videos of unaccompanied performances of "The Star-Spangled Banner" to nahbstarinfo@gmail.com by Sept. 15.

The videos will then be posted on the IBS website, www.BuildersShow.com, where the NAHB family and general public will have from Oct. 12-29 to vote for their favorite performance.

NAHB will announce the top four finalists on Nov. 2 and then fly them to Orlando for final judging just prior to the Builders’ Show. The winner will sing the national anthem during the Grand Opening Ceremonies on Wednesday, Jan. 12.

In addition, the local home builders associations that are connected to the finalists will also receive prizes and recognition.

Three With the Talent and Courage to Be Finalists in the First NAHB Star! Contest

More than 13,000 votes were cast in 2009 to select the three finalists for the first NAHB Star! talent contest — Maria Mazzola, the daughter of builder Robert Mazzola of Atrium International, a modular home sales and construction firm in Montville, N.J.; Sheila Baker, of First Title Agency Inc. of Kings Island, Ohio; and Nicole Goolsby, CGP, AMB, of Rion Homes in Cornelius, N.C.

The three finalists were flown to Las Vegas immediately prior to IBS 2010 for final judging, and Mazzola was chosen as the winner. (To view Mazzola's video entry, click here.)

Mazzola, who has worked for Disney at its Tokyo theme park and on the Disney Cruise Line and who now performs with a wedding band and teaches piano and voice, entered the competition after her father, a member of the Community Builders and Remodelers Association of New Jersey, told her about it.

“My dad had been to IBS in the past and told me that the opening ceremonies were really something to see so I was very happy and excited to be part of it,” Mazzola said. “It was really exciting to win.”

NAHB flew Baker, an active member of the Home Builders Association of Greater Cincinnati, and her husband to Las Vegas after she was selected a finalist by the online voters. (To view Baker's video entry, click here.)

“We were treated like rock stars,” Baker said. “It was a wonderful experience and an honor to be there and meet the other finalists. I’ve received tons of e-mails from friends congratulating me, and I still run into people who heard about me being in the contest.”

Goolsby, who has been involved in singing groups and competitions since grade school, decided to enter the NAHB Star! contest after the executive officer of her local HBA, the Lake Norman Home Builders Association, told her about it. When Goolsby was scheduled to sing "The Star-Spangled Banner" at an HBA event, she had her performance videotaped so she could upload it to YouTube and enter the competition.

“We were all winners,” Goolsby said of the NAHB Star! competition, “but the best part was getting to know the other finalists — there was such camaraderie among us and we were all so happy for Maria. It couldn’t have been more perfect.”

Goolsby also encouraged any members of the NAHB family who are thinking about entering this year not to hesitate. “Just do it,” she said. “You have nothing to lose and it’s a whole lot of fun. The support and encouragement I got from other people in my local HBA and state organization was just incredible.”

For more information about the NAHB Star! competition and rules, visit www.BuildersShow.com/Star or e-mail nahbstarinfo@gmail.com.