Sirens give a moving winter performance

On Friday, the JHU Sirens performed their fall concert in Bloomberg Auditorium, featuring two all-male groups: The Peabodies (from the Peabody Conservatory) and The Originals (from Carnegie Mellon University).

The Sirens performed a range of songs, from “I Want You Back,” by Jackson 5 to “Home,” by Philip Philips.

The crowd was blown away by one particular soloist, Paulina Valderrabano, a fiery sophomore with incredible vocal control. She performed “Shake It Out” by Florence + the Machine, and she certainly did it justice.

Senior Ekaette Obot performed the solo for “No Scrubs” by TLC, an awesome throwback piece that transported the audience back into the 90s, and her smooth and soulful singing seemed effortless on stage.

The Sirens closed the show with “Some Nights” by fun. Senior Brittany Tusing was one of the three soloist for the song. Her energy, vocal projection and fantastically on-point oo’s towards the end of the song made the audience wish that the concert would never end.

During a brief intermission between performances, the newest additions to the Sirens, freshmen Madi Abelson and Cara Scharf and sophomore Katie Prochownik played a music video they created. Hilarity ensued.

In the video, they sang “Sirens Style” while dancing through Hopkins showing off their PSY dance moves, and the audience could not contain its laughter.

Bravo to the newest Sirens and their awesome remake of Gangnam Style.

“We practice six hours a week and have been working all semester to prepare for this performance,” Tusing said.

When asked about what one of her favorite parts of the show was, she said, “The most amazing part was when one of our members, [sophomore] Lara Baez, became ill during her solo, and her best friend, [sophomore] Jordan Gray, came up to sing with her. It was literally the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen. We are all incredibly close and have so much fun performing together.”

The audience can attest to Tusing’s thoughts about Baez’s solo. Not only did she rock it, but when Gray stepped forward to help a fellow Siren out, it really became a moving performance. The audience cheered wildly, and it was definitely the highlight of the show.

The Peabodies were incredible.

Sophomore John An, a Hopkins voice double major at Peabody, had the crowd roaring with his bold and wild solo in their performance of “Shout.” The rest of the singers backed up John’s solo with fantastic energy, and those boys certainly knew how to project.

With only six singers, The Peabodies filled the entire auditorium with their virile voices.

The CMU Originals had sass.

With their matching, pressed white shirts and blue ties, they looked, felt and sang like a real group of guys bound together by their love of a cappella music.

They fed off each other’s energy and the audience could see that not only were they great singers, but great performers as well. Their incredibly arranged song medley had the audience guessing what would come next.

The best part of their performance was their engagement with the audience and interaction with each other. Their performance of “Lady Be Good” had the women in the audience swooning, and the soloist that performed “Drift Away” made Dobie Gray proud.