SCHRIEVER AIR FORCE BASE, Colo. -- Schriever's first ever "Sing it Loud" karaoke competition kicked off Friday, Aug. 11, 2017 with a dynamic trio telling Schriever "what they really really want," with a rendition of the Spice Girls classic, "Wannabe."
The ensemble's prize-winning performance set the tone of the night, with the whole of the competition's performances being a combination of modern and classic hits.
Ultimately, the winners of the prizes for Best Ensemble, Best Solo Artist, Best Kid Performer and Most Entertaining were a mix of the two:
Best Ensemble: "Wannabe" by Staff Sgt. Joe Coram, 50th Mission Support Group self-assessment program manager, Staff Sgt. Brandon Council, 50th Contracting Squadron contract specialist and 1st Lt. Craig Miles, 50th Contracting Squadron contracting specialist.
Best Solo Artist: "End of the Road" by Melvin Peppers, 50th Civil Engineering Squadron engineering technician.
Best Kid Performer: "I Will Survive" by Mariah Mobley, 10.
Most Entertaining: "Billionaire" by Catherine Sanford, Dunkin' Donuts general manager.
The winning members of the competition appeared to have fun doing so, with wigs, dances and audience participation being steps to their success.
"That was the first Schriever outing I've ever been to," Sanford said. "I was worried, thinking 'I see these people every day for coffee, if I make a fool of myself this will be awful,' but overall it was fun, I had a blast!"
However, before the winners had been announced, there were several performances to rival the winners'. Renditions of classics like "Hopelessly Devoted to You" and "My Heart Will Go On" provided the judges with more to think about in terms of the rankings.
“We loved the energy that our performers had, it was a great combination of active duty, civilians, spouses and children that participated, and we appreciated having a well-rounded group of participants. It was clear that competitors put a lot of thought into their song choices, and some even went above and beyond with their creativity. Our goal is to boost morale and encourage comradery, and this event definitely did that,” said Jennifer Revell, 50th Force Support Squadron commercial sponsorship coordinator.
Ultimately the night had 10 performances for the panel of judges to mull over, and 50 FSS would like to see growth in participation in the future, as would the other participants.
"I would come back if they had another one, but I would probably bring a lot more people with me," said Sanford.
However, 50 FSS is happy with the turnout, and has high hopes for the events to come.
“We do hope to hold a similar event in the future. We're going to start with a movie premier on September 15, where we'll be playing “Cars 3” and serving snacks again, similarly to the second portion of last week's event. This event will start at 3 p.m. and is open to all.
“As far as the karaoke piece, we're definitely looking into how we can re-create a similar event in the future,” she continued. “With perhaps more open-mic singing. We hope that will take a little bit of the edge off of performing.”
To participate in future events like this, keep an eye out for preview articles released on the Schriever website or details in the 'Stall Street Journal.'