Alpha Psi Omega, theatre honor society, hosted a lip sync battle for students to participate in and compete against one another Thursday, Nov. 15, at 7 p.m. in the U-Club. All proceeds of the lip sync battle went toward the Safehouse Crisis Center.
A set of judges awarded the top three contestants for first, second, and third places with various prizes. Katia Arianes, senior in communication, was one of the Alpha Psi Omega members who helped put together the lip sync battle.
“The intent was to, it was two-fold,” Arianes said. “We wanted to bring members of the community and students together just to have a good time, but ultimately we wanted to get donations for Safehouse Crisis Center. So it was kind of both things, we wanted to have a really good time and raise money, so we decided to do something that we could do both.”
The vice president of the honor society came up with the idea for the battle and Arianes said she took the idea and “ran with it.” The lip sync battle was a way for the honor society to give back to the community and those who need a hand.
“Well, we were collecting items (Safehouse) needed and they needed things like shampoo, conditioner, diapers, stuff like that,” Arianes said. “So those are things that we collected today that will go straight to them and then the money we got, too… I know they get a fair number of babies and young children there, so they needed things like diapers and pull-ups, and hopefully this will help them—because they’re not cheap and I’m sure they go through them really fast.”
Noah Smith, sophomore in communication, competed in the battle and won first place with a solo performance.
“I performed a song called ‘Quando Quando Quando,’ which is by a man called Engelbert Humperdinck and it was very popular overseas during the 60s and some of the vets from Korea, Vietnam, brought it back to the United States,” Smith said. “… It’s my dad’s favorite song and I always wanted to lip sync it back in my hometown, but it never came to pass. We always do a Veterans Day Pageant kind of thing and we lip synced old songs…”
Smith said he was surprised but excited to place first in the competition. Jesse Comeau, senior in communication, followed Smith, taking second place. Comeau gave a solo performance of ‘Irresistible” by Fallout Boy.
“It feels good, I sang this song a lot in my car all the time, so I kind of already knew what I would dance to it,” Comeau said. “So it’s fun to just go out there and dance to something I love.”
The lip sync battle attracted Comeau because he wanted to support those in Alpha Psi Omega as well as his major’s department.
“I’ve got a lot of friends in the theatre department, and I love to perform, I love music, I love dancing, and also I could win free stuff, so this was everything I could want,” he said.
Comeau said he enjoys attending programs like the lip sync battle because it’s a time to have a good time with friends while also helping those in need.
“I think it’s amazing because we basically all got to have fun for charity,” he said. “It’s a great time, I think more clubs should do it, it’s awesome.”
Arianes said Alpha Psi Omega hopes to hold the lip sync battle again, either once a semester or annually. She added that students should look out for future events from the organization.
“I think the turnout was pretty good, considering it’s the first time we’ve ever done it and we didn’t have a whole heck of a lot of time to get everything together,” Arianes said. “… And I think the battle went amazing, everyone was so good, the judges had a lot of really good things to look at, and I think everyone had a really good time. And that was the two things that I really cared about: everyone having a really good time and raising some money, and I think both of them happened.”