I judged a heart throb Look Alike Contest

Dec 29

A few weeks ago, I was honored to be one of the judges for the Black Heart Throb Look-A-Like competition in Brooklyn and it was such a fun experience. The competition took place on Sunday, November 24th at Herbert Von King Park in Bed Stuy, Brooklyn, and was facilitated by Masani Musa, also known as the founder of the @cltrunfiltered platform, and “Do What You Love Productions”, an event planning brand.

Here are some of the contestants of the Black Heart Throb Look-A-Like Competition.

I first heard about the competition on TikTok and was immediately interested in attending. I scrolled through the comments, looking to see what everyone was saying, and I saw Masani mentioned that those interested in judging should DM her. I immediately commented that I was interested from the @wemetirl TikTok account and she followed back! From there I went to her IG DMs as instructed, and was added to a group chat of judges shortly after.

There were like 12 girls in the groupchat. Most of us were influencers or women with some type of platforms, so it was cool to be included in such a group! Masani asked us to arrive an hour early, so I came around 2 pm and helped hang up some last minute flyers. The event was slated to start at 3PM but we ended up starting closer to 4pm. It was such a cold day and we hoped the turnout would be better.

Here's the flyer for the Black Heart Throb Look A Like Competition — Here’s the flyer for the Black Heart Throb Look A Like Competition

All in all, we had like 8 participants that rounded out nicely. There was a DJ, and Masani MC’d the event. Each round we asked the participants a question, starting with who their lookalike was. After each round, someone had to be eliminated and the crowd was able to vote as well by clapping for their favorites.

There was first, second and third place, and the winners were First Place: Shaken Grohmann as Jayson Tatum, Second Place, Jamier Boatman as Eazy-E; and Third Place: Bryce Dixon, as Skepta. Overall it was a fun lighthearted event! I posted a TikTok recap of the event here if you’d like to watch!

Here are the 1st, 2nd and 3rd place winners of the Black Heart Throb Look-A-Like Competition in Brooklyn, NY. From left to right, 2nd place Jamier Boatman (Eazy-E/Tyson Beckford); first place Shaken Grohmann (Jayson Tatum), & 3rd Bryce Dixon (Skepta)

Heart Throb competitions have been trending over the past few months and it’s been so exciting to see all of the content that people are sharing about the different competitions.

I think the first competition I heard about was the Timothee Chalamet one, where he actually made an appearance in support of the madness. Shortly after that I saw a really funny TikTok from an attendee’s perspective on attending the Jeremy Allen White Look-A-Like competition in Chicago. All the participants came dressed up as his most recent role, Carmy, from “The Bear”. The winner was spot on, and there was news coverage from local Chicago publications on the event.

As someone working in the events and dating space, I think it’s really cool to see people bringing back fun community events like this. We’ve spoken ad nauseum about the effects of the pandemic on socializing, so efforts like this are important.

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