Local celebs will compete through June 9 in a Facebook-fueled popularity contest for a chance to guest conduct the Texas Music Festival Orchestra in a performance of the Star-Spangled Banner at Moores Opera House on June 26.

The Houston faces competing for the honor in something of an American Idol-style conductors challenge (without any actual performance competition — it's a straight vote, no conducting auditions) are celebrity chefs Hugo Ortega and Monica Pope, news anchor Miya Shay, Grammy award nominee Scott Gertner, radio host Brent Clanton and Houston Chronicle cartoonist Nick Anderson.

It's no Facebook lark for some of the contestants though. Ortega, owner and executive chef at Hugo's upscale Mexican restaurant, a longtime staple of Houston's fine dining scene, told us how the contest holds deeper meaning to him than a popularity vote.

"I like music a lot and it sounded like something I'd love to do," Ortega says. "But then I was informed it was a patriotic song I'd be conducting and it's much more meaningful."

Ortega became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1997. He came to America illegally when he was 17 and worked his way up in the restaurant industry from a busboy to My Table magazine's Chef of the Year (in 2002).

Ortega says that he doesn't have much of a music background, but some of his ancestors in his tiny hometown in Mexico were talented musicians — his great grandfather played the violin.

No worries for those lacking professional conducting experience. The winner gets a conducting lesson from Univeristy of Houston Moores School of Music Conducting Professor Franz Anton Krager before the big event.

You can vote for your favorite Houston celeb here.