Under the dimmed Lisner Auditorium stage lights, The Sirens a cappella team assembled in perfect formation in preparation for the annual Battle of the A Cappellas competition, their sights set on the first place spot.

Competing against five other student a cappella organizations, including last year’s winners The Troubadours, The Sirens prepared mashups and choreography to match this year’s theme of songs by British bands or singers. After a semester of long vocal rehearsals and group dance practices, The Sirens took home the award for best choreography Wednesday night. 

Sophomore and Music Director for The Sirens Fiona Doyle said their early rehearsals in January focused on learning the sheet music and nailing down harmonies, adding in choreography later in the semester to sync with the group’s soloists. 

As music director, Doyle worked to create the set, putting together musical arrangements by breaking songs into individual voice parts and ensuring the group’s vocal blend sounded cohesive.

“We added the choreography element, and then we had to put the choreography and the music together, which is a little difficult because a lot of the choreography is synced with the words and the lyrics that the soloist is singing, as opposed to with the background vocals,” Doyle said.

Doyle said The Sirens’ preparation for performance day was stunted by a few challenges, with practices taking a short break in February while the group performed singing valentines to students on campus as a fundraiser for the group. She said the GW Motherfunkers used one of their original song choices, “Diet Pepsi” by Addison Rae, so they had to quickly pivot earlier in the semester to performing “Want U Back” by Cher Lloyd instead. 

“You have to make sure, especially early on in the semester, that there’s no overlap with the sets because each a cappella group wants their set to be unique, and then there’s no way of comparing, especially if it’s two of the exact same songs,” Doyle said. 

Senior and Sirens Business Manager Annika Vasagiri said because the group does not compete in the International Championship of Collegiate A Cappella, unlike a few other GW groups including Sons of Pitch, Battle is the only opportunity for them to showcase their talent and what they’ve been working on all year. She said when the group builds their set, they attempt to add creativity to each of the elements — whether it’s through choreography, vocal percussion or creation of their own arrangements — to make them stand apart from other competing groups. 

“They’ll kind of just go into formations and then go into new formations, and move their arms to make things dynamic,” Vasagiri said. “But we have what I would call, like true dancing happening as they sing and that takes a lot of creativity to choreograph things and keep the dance looking cohesive, but also different and exciting.”

One day before the competition

The day before Battle, The Sirens met for a final rehearsal in the lower level of the University Student Center, marking the end of their tech week after rehearsals every day leading up to competition. With the team rehearsing this particular set since January, Doyle said repetition was the most integral part to the process to keep the choreography fresh in their minds. 

After warming up, the members stood in a circle to run through the set’s vocals, briefly pausing to correct the most minute details — how they’re pronouncing a word, or focusing on a specific vocal group to ensure that all the parts blended together seamlessly.

“Always make sure you’re pulling a lot of air into your diaphragm,” one member said to her fellow Sirens during a run through of the set.

The Sirens then conducted a group stretch session to the song “Nobody’s Girl,” by Tate McRae to warm up their bodies before the big performance, followed by a rehearsal of each of the songs from their set with some Sirens holding their phones as fake microphones.

Though the rehearsal room was small, The Sirens made the space their stage with bold vocals and fierce choreography, preparing themselves to take to the stage only a few hours later.

Day of the competition

Eager students trickled into Lisner Auditorium around 7:00 p.m., packing the front half of the space, some holding small bouquets to congratulate friends after the show.

The lights dimmed around 7:45 p.m. as Student Government Association President Ethan Lynne stepped on stage to host the evening’s competition. 

The judges who would decide each group’s fate included current Masters of Public Health student Lydia Zimmerman, president of the local D.C. a cappella group Chord of Appeals, Aaron Conrado and GW Dean of Students Colette Coleman.

Each time one of the six groups took the stage, the crowd roared, ready to see how each group’s members would “ooh,” “aah” and beatbox to various mashups of popular songs. 

The Motherfunkers, a co-ed a cappella group, were the first to perform, walking on stage in black outfits with pops of yellow, purple and green in their accessories, singing “Illegal” by PinkPantheress, “So Hot You’re Hurting My Feelings” by Caroline Polachek and “Diet Pepsi” by Addison Rae. The group paused briefly after each tune for one member to sound the pitch pipe, ensuring they were all in tune for the starting note.

The Pitches, GW’s first all-treble a cappella group, were the second group to take to the stage. Dressed in black and white outfits with matching purple Converse sneakers, the group performed “Mirrors” by Justin Timberlake, “So Easy (To Fall in Love)” by Olivia Dean and “Story of My Life” by One Direction.

Over 15 members of Sons of Pitch, one of the larger groups of the night, swarmed the stage for the battle’s third performance. The audience sat in awe as the Sons of Pitch moved through their set of songs, including “Night Changes” by One Direction, a brief interlude of “Stateside” by Zara Larsson — with three members busting out the viral TikTok dance on stage — and “Creep” by Radiohead.  

The Troubadours took a disco approach to their set, performing songs from the 1970s like “More than a Woman” and “Stayin’ Alive” by the Bee Gees wearing sparkly silver and black outfits and even getting the audience to test their own vocals in a call and response to “Wings” by Little Mix.

As the final group of the night to perform, The Sirens took the stage, introduced by a cheering crowd with some audience members standing up to cheer on their friends on stage. The 14 Sirens strutted on stage wearing Union Jack tank tops and t-shirts paired with blue jeans, starting their set off with “Primadonna” by MARINA. The Sirens blended harmonies across soprano and alto vocal parts, concluding the number with two members lifting the soloist near the last chorus of the song.

After the first song, Doyle quietly used the pitch pipe to cue the group into “Want U Back” by Cher Lloyd as the second song of their 15 minute set, leaning into the British theme of the night with heavy accents paired with sassy dance movements. 

The end of the Lloyd tune transitioned into a medley of popular Tate McRae hits, like “Tit for Tat,” “Revolving Door” and “Sports Car.” The Sirens’ signature beatboxer, senior Guinevere MacLowry, made car-like revving sounds to introduce “Sports Car,” with the group filing into formations across the stage in varying lines and groups and imitating car-like motions with their choreography. 

Post-show

Following a 20 minute deliberation period for the judges to decide upon winners, each team returned to the stage awaiting their soon-to-be-announced fate. Dean of Students Collette Coleman proclaimed Sons of Pitch as the audience’s fan favorite award winner. Following this victory, Zimmerman and Conrado announced a slew of other specialty awards, including best choreography, secured by The Sirens. 

At last, it was time for the most anticipated award of the night. Each of the five groups eagerly stood on stage awaiting the result with the crowd falling silent to hear the judges declare the winning group. Finally, Conrado announced Sons of Pitch as the winner of the best group award. 

Following the awards ceremony, Doyle said she was really proud of the team’s accomplishment of winning best choreography, and she wouldn’t have changed anything about their preparation or performance that night.  

“We had been practicing it at 100 percent, and we went on the stage and did it at 150 percent, so we came off stage, and we were all really proud of ourselves,” Doyle said.

Fellow member Bella Carver echoed Doyle’s sentiment about the group’s choreography, saying it was a “relief” to win the award after meticulously combining their vocals and choreography and rehearsing the cohesive movements for hours on end.

“That was definitely the thing we struggled with the most, that definitely took the most time, because learning music is hard, but choreo and then putting it together is really difficult,” she said.

Following their performance, The Sirens left the auditorium as a group, satisfied with their production and awards and ready to return to Battle next year.