Ernie Recato Wins First Place at Health Net Senior Stars Karaoke Championship

The world has spoken: Connecticut’s seniors are singing with shining ‘Stars’ in their eyes. Health Net Senior Stars, a karaoke contest for senior citizens, recently finished its first-ever championship event at Hamden, Conn.’s Miller Senior Center. The statewide competition drew more than 600 contestants, ranging in age from 55 to 95 years old, from more than 60 senior centers, and garnered more than 32,000 votes on YouTube. Ernie Recato from South End East Hartford Senior Center sang his heart out to "Green Green Grass of Home,” beating out nine other finalists to earn first place and a submission of his recorded performance to the TV show "America’s Got Talent.”

"I want to sing a song that is very close to my heart,” said Recato before he gave his performance. Recato and the second and third place contestants were each awarded a trophy for their senior center. Commemorative plaques also were awarded to each of the top 10 finalists.

The Health Net Senior Stars competition was modeled after the national singing and talent reality TV shows "American Idol” and "America’s Got Talent.” Contestants qualified by singing songs of their choice at regional events throughout the state to a panel of three local professional musicians, who determined which performances were good enough to advance to the next round.

Those performers who received a "thumbs up” from the judges had their videotaped performances uploaded to the official Health Net Senior Stars YouTube site, www.youtube.com/healthnetseniorstars.

On the site, viewers from all corners of Connecticut and across the world selected the 10 finalists to perform at the championship event. Each view, star rating and positive comment a performance video received counted as a vote. Voting began Dec. 4 and ended the day before the championship on Dec. 15, 2009. Recato’s performance video garnered the most votes with 1,483.

The top 10 finalists were: Ernie Recato, East Hartford; Doryce Blake Coon, North Haven; John Ferreira, Wallingford; Al Talmadge, Bristol; Bob and Mary Leone, Bristol; Anthony Forto, Woodbridge; Dora Barlow, Enfield; David Byrne, Orange; Art Munter, Woodbury; and John Sullivan, Windsor Locks.

"It has been fantastic seeing how excited and passionate the seniors have been about the Health Net Senior Stars program,” said Katy Zalinsky, government programs officer and vice president at Health Net of the Northeast. "The events had great turnouts as far as participation and voting. We’re proud to be able to host events like Senior Stars that help keep seniors active, socializing, and having fun.”

About Health Net

Health Net, Inc. is among the nation’s largest publicly traded managed health care companies. Its mission is to help people be healthy, secure and comfortable. The company’s health plans and government contracts subsidiaries provide health benefits to more than 6 million individuals across the country through group, individual, Medicare, Medicaid and TRICARE and Veterans Affairs programs. Health Net’s behavioral health subsidiary, MHN, provides mental health benefits to approximately 6.5 million individuals in all 50 states. The company’s subsidiaries also offer managed health care products related to prescription drugs, and offer managed health care product coordination for multi-region employers and administrative services for medical groups and self-funded benefits programs.

For more information on Health Net, Inc., please visit the company’s Web site at www.healthnet.com.