Northern Lights A Cappella, our award-winning student vocal group, has come away from the Open A Cappella Competition in Warwick with a swathe of accolades including first place.
Northern Lights is going from strength to strength. The group's latest accomplishments took place on Saturday 22 February at the Open A Cappella Competition, where they faced nine finalists (including non-collegiate groups) from across the UK.
The fifteen members of the gifted group put on a spectacular performance to claim the competition's top spot. They also won two special awards for Exceptional Arrangement and Exceptional Choreography, both for the entire set. These latest accolades highlight the outstanding talent of their Musical Director, Aman Krishna, and choreography team - Phoebe Morris and Bede Capstick, led by Joe Butler-Smith.
Northern Lights returns to the competitive season this year with a set as strong as ever, featuring renditions of ‘Somewhere Over the Rainbow’ by Harold Arlen, ‘Dream On’ by Aerosmith, ‘Golden Slumbers’ by the Beatles and an electric closer in ‘Night Fever’ by the Bee Gees.
Looking to the future, Northern Lights have just under two weeks to prepare for their next national competition, at the International Championship of Collegiate A Cappella (ICCA) semi-finals at New Wimbledon Theatre on Saturday 15 March. Should they be successful, they will then be invited to represent the UK at the international finals in New York, USA. They performed on Broadway at the finals in 2023 and 2024, and we're wishing them best of luck this year.
I am so proud of every single member of the group. That Northern Lights has come out on top again is a credit to their hard work and talent. Consistency across generations in the A Cappella scene is extremely difficult, given that groups lose and gain members every year and I feel honoured to be rewarded for the hard work we have put into maintaining our standard. We have a lot of work to do to defend our ICCA title in London in a couple of weeks' time, where we will proudly represent Durham University, and I have every faith that the group will rise to the challenge.
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