Two of Marquette’s a cappella groups, the Naturals and the Gold ‘n Blues, competed in the International Championship of Collegiate A Cappella (ICCA) quarterfinals this weekend in Madison, Wisconsin. Neither group placed in the top three.
The Gold ‘n Blues ranked fourth in the competition, just missing the placement in the top three.
The competition took place in the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s student union and consisted of 10 different teams from the Great Lakes area performing their 10-minute-long showcases.
The event started with each group drawing the order in which they would compete. The Naturals performed fifth, and the Gold ‘n Blues performed last.
“A huge thing about the competition is memorability, and remaining memorable in the judges’ eyes, and so we were like, ‘We get to go tenth, we are the last thing on their brain before they’re making these decisions,’ and so we were really happy with closing out the show,” sophomore in the College of Communication and Gold ‘n Blues Creative Director Bennett Chapman said.
After drawing the competition order, each group was able to do a sound check and block choreography. The competition then started at 7 p.m.
The Naturals performed ‘Hard Run’ by the Zac Brown Band, ‘Over My Head (Cable Car)’ by the Fray and an Icelandic electronic song.
“I think we were all really happy about [the performance] …we had a lot of energy we definitely brought to the stage,” Naturals President and junior in the College of Arts & Sciences Teddy Gustafson said. “This year, one thing we really wanted to emphasize was smiling, having fun on stage and bringing emotion to all the songs, so I think we did that successfully.”
This was the third time the Naturals have competed in ICCA — the previous two times were in 2022 and 2023.
“The Marquette groups are fairly new to competing, especially our group,” said Chapman. “So, we were like ‘Let’s just get a feel of it, and let’s just have fun.’”
The Gold ‘n Blues performed “Training Season” by Dua Lipa, “Biting My Tongue” by Duncan Laurence and “Holding out for a Hero” by Bonnie Tyler.
“We’ve been working so hard on it, everything feels polished, and we were honestly more excited to perform it than nervous,” Chapman said.
7Days A Cappella from the University of Minnesota and Under A-Rest from the University of Wisconsin-Madison went home with first and second place, respectively, and will be the only groups from the competition moving on to the semifinals.
“Regardless of what happened this year, it’s a really good setup year for the next couple of years,” Chapman said. “It gives us a pep in our step, and it helps us set goals because now we know what we need to do.”
Gustafson said this was a learning experience for the team.
“There’s always some good creativity that I think we can learn from other groups, especially from choreography – unique movements we can keep in our back pockets,” Gustafson said.
Reed Hoegler, junior in the College of Arts and Sciences and the Naturals’ Music Director, made mental notes about the group’s performance.
“We had a lot of energy at the end of our set, but having a lot more energy in the beginning to get the crowd more involved and get ourselves a little more pumped up would be nice,” Hoegler said.
The Gold ‘n Blues will have their final show of the semester on April 25, and the Naturals will perform at the Mels After Dark show the last weekend of February. The Naturals will also have their spring show on April 10.
The ICCA semifinals will take place at the Pabst Theatre in Milwaukee on March 28.
Click here to learn more about The Gold n’ Blues and here to learn more about The Naturals.
This article was written by Annie Goode. She can be contacted at [email protected]
