A national champion is crowned in Canada, California sweeps Massachusetts, Johnston goes undefeated and Broken Arrow defends their home turf!
FAME National Show Choir Finals
Overall Results
1st: Johnston “Innovation” (BV, BC, BB)
2nd: Bloomington Kennedy “Rhythm in Gold”
3rd: Norris “Gold”
4th: Northridge “Northern Lights”
5th: Johnston “Synergy”
6th: American Leadership Academy “Evolution”
Johnston’s season is one for the record books. They put the show choir world on notice in January and then rolled through a tough February schedule before coming to the Finals in April. Not only did they go undefeated, they never lost a vocals or choreography award all season long. Five-win seasons don’t come along often, and 2023 will be a high point in Innovation’s history. After starting off the season with three wins, Rhythm in Gold rounds out the season with two seconds and a third. Just like Johnston, this is perhaps the best season on record for Kennedy, with RIG jumping right into the ‘best choir in Minnesota’ discussion. Norris comes home in a solid third place, and also won the FAME Award (equivalent to sportsmanship). While Northridge finished fourth, they represented all small choirs well at the Finals and gave it their best shot against the big choirs. After a win at FAME Orlando, ALA is last of the varsity choirs and will continue to search for momentum and definition as it moves forward from Rick Lunt’s retirement.
Jenks Show Choir Invitational
Final Results
GC: Broken Arrow “Tiger Rhythm” (BV, BC)
1RU: Pleasant Hill “Hillside Singers” (BB)
2RU: Broken Arrow “Tiger Mystique”
3RU: Pleasant Hill “Hilltop Harmony”
4RU: Pleasant Hill “Powerhouse”
What was somewhat regarded as an opening for lesser-known Oklahoma choirs to shine turned into a big-choir party in finals. It was not totally out of the question to have Broken Arrow and Pleasant Hill sweep the finals spots, but it wasn’t a given, either. Tiger Rhythm records its second three-win season and defends Oklahoma against Pleasant Hill, who has had a rather up-and-down year. Hilltop Harmony wound up jumping Powerhouse from prelims to finals, giving at least a little bit of excitement to the final awards. Of schools not named Broken Arrow or Pleasant Hill, Enid was the closest to qualifying for finals, taking third in the daytime mixed competition. In the middle school division, Childers took home the Broken Arrow title for the summer over the other three middle schools. While Jenks may be spited by some for not having a ‘one choir per school makes finals’ rule, schedules change every year and next year’s results may look plenty different.
Show Choir Canada Championships
Results
Arts School/Community Groups
1st: Etobicoke “Splash”
2nd: Unionville “Synergy”
Non-ASCG Large Mixed
1st: St. George’s “G Major”
2nd: Our Lady of Lourdes “The Pitches”
Non-ASCG Small Mixed
1st: All Saints “Flash”
2nd: Pickering “Euphonix”
3rd: Beaconsfield “Crescendo”
The calendar has turned over to another year, which means that Etobicoke has won another Show Choir Canada event. While captions have not been announced, chances are that the division wasn’t really that close. Splash hasn’t lost a Canadian event since 2017, when most of this year’s freshman were in the upper levels of elementary school. St. George’s nabs its second consecutive large mixed division win, while The Pitches moved up from small mixed to large mixed this year. All Saints has never finished outside of the top two in its division since debuting in 2015, and that streak did not end this year. After not participating in the 2022 virtual edition, Pickering and Beaconsfield both return for 2023.
Waltham Eastern Show Choir Festival
Large Mixed
1st: John Burroughs “Powerhouse” (BV, BC)
2nd: Daniel Hand “VIBE” (BB)
3rd: Tantasqua “ENCORE!”
Small Mixed
1st: Oceanside “Soundwaves” (BC)
2nd: Bishop Hendricken “Paramount” (BV)
3rd: Somerset Berkley “Electrify”
Single-Gender
1st: John Burroughs “Sound Sensations” (BV, BC)
2nd: Shepherd Hill “Illusion”
3rd: Tantasqua “Radiance”
Three California choirs entered Waltham. Three California choirs took home division wins. The large mixed was perhaps the least surprising of the three. Powerhouse had a win over Los Alamitos in the bag last month before a time penalty halted their bid for a title at Hart. They take home a win over the best of New England this year, Daniel Hand. Tantasqua has also emerged throughout the course of the season as a very solid mid-level large mixed group, rounding out the podium here. In small mixed, Oceanside splits the captions with Bishop Hendricken, who has not won a small division after going undefeated in 2020. Soundwaves now has two division wins in three tries this year. In single-gender, Sound Sensations and Illusions were the class of the field, both earning gold medals. The rest of the seven-choir division earned silver medals, with Radiance making it two third-place finishes for Tantasqua.
While there are no competitions next weekend for the Easter holiday, Show Choir Madness is in full swing! Check out the Barstool website and Twitter account for the nation's largest show choir bracket!
Comments