Students, parents and faculty poured into McFarlin Memorial Auditorium Friday night for the annual Sing Song competition. Hosted by Program Council, Sing Song 2015 “Earth” featured paired groups from all over SMU’s campus, including Chi Omega and Sigma Chi, Delta Delta Delta and Beta Theta Pi, Sigma Phi Epsilon and Kappa Alpha Theta, Theta Tau and Lyle Engineering, Delta Gamma and Beta Upsilon Chi, Pi Beta Phi and Kappa Alpha Order, and Pi Kappa Alpha and Gamma Phi Beta.
The “Earth” theme had each team tackling a different biome of the globe and turning it into a fantastic musical number.
Program Council kicked off the hype two weeks ago with the Facebook photo “like” contest. A picture of each team’s stars representing their biome went viral as the teams fought to get the most likes on their photo.
Sigma Phi Epsilon and Kappa Alpha Theta crushed that competition with over 2,800 likes, earning them five extra points before the competition began.
Hosts Ally Van Deuren, Greg Peterson and Monica Finnegan kicked off the event with a bang with an introduction video directed by Ryan Blitzer, a film and advertising student.
After saying a few words and cracking some jokes, the show began with Chi Omega and Sigma Chi’s “Jungle” performance, complete with a Tarzan and Jane love story.
Delta Delta Delta and Beta Theta Pi followed the act with their “Beach” recital. Featuring hula girls and a staged shark attack, the team performed Katy Perry’s upbeat “California Girls” and belted out Beyonce’s “Drunk in Love”.
Sigma Phi Epsilon and Kappa Alpha Theta took us back to prom at Antarctica High in the “Tundra” biome. The Sig Ep members did a NSYNC number to kick off the performance, which later featured a Kayne West cameo and a remix of Frozen favorite “Do you want to build a snowman?”
Theta Tau and Lyle Engineering showed off their acting skills in their “Space” themed performance. Starting out on an alien planet, they met up with crowd-pleasing superheroes Batman, Wonder Woman and Captain America.
Up next was Delta Gamma and Beta Upsilon Chi, tackling the “Underwater” atmosphere. This one also featured some well-known characters like Dory from Finding Nemo and Patrick Star, who stole the show from the other sea creatures.
Last year’s winners Pi Beta Phi and Kappa Alpha Order returned this year to defend their title with a Hunger Games story of how Chad Morris landed the SMU football head coach position. What stole their performance was Maggie Harper and Paul Vegas’s rendition of Adele’s crooning “Skyfall” number.
Finally, the show closed with Pi Kappa Alpha and Gamma Phi Beta’s take on life in the “Desert.” Their song and dance number took viewers to Egypt, where they ran into TCU’s head coach and fought for an ancient artifact.
These short performances were not put together over night. “We were practicing for hours every week, and then, right before the performance, we were practicing for hours every day,” Sig Ep member Scott Moody said. Add that onto hours of homework and socializing and that is a lot of dedication.
Even with all the craziness that goes into each act, it brings the members of each team closer together and offers the teams an incredible experience.
Alex Cain, who starred in Pi Phi and KA’s winning performance last year, came on as the team’s director this time around.
“Although there were many challenges with motivating and leading such a large group, directing sing song taught me a lot about leadership. There’s a ton of behind the scene work that goes on all year and I felt incredibly satisfied watching the final performance knowing that everyone had put in all that work.”
When all was sung and done, Theta Tau and Lyle Engineering won the crowd over with their “Space” performance to take home the winning prize, a cash prize to be awarded to their philanthropy.
Congratulations to all the performers for their countless hours of preparation and vocal warm ups. We will see you next year for another sing song battle.
