Fans of the TV singing competition, "The Sing Off," were treated to a 2-hour vocals party as it aired its holiday special on December 17. The show replaced an entire fifth season and featured six groups who competed against each other to take home $50,000.
Host Nick Lachey opened the show to explain the mechanics of the holiday premier. Instead of eight groups, the show will have only six that would perform their chosen song in the first round. Only three would be chosen for the second round. The three would then perform a song chosen by the judges, according to a report by Reality TV Magazine.
Teams from different cities such as New York, New Haven, Los Angeles, Nashville and San Francisco were chosen to compete in last night's show.
Timothy's Gift from Nashville began the first round. The all-girl group began singing in church and one of their advocacies is to visit prisons and perform there to remind the inmates that their past mistakes does not define them.
Shawn Stockman from the Boyz II Men, who was at the show as one of the judges described their rendition of "Ghost" as "like heaven." Another judge, country singer Jewel, on the other hand was not that impressed with their lack of bass and percussion sound, while noting that the lack works well for their singing style.
Second to go was A.Squared from Yale and the group performed Bastille's Pompeii. Third on the group was another all-girl a cappella group who met at church, the Traces. Their version of "River Deep Mountain High" by Tina Turner wowed both the audience and the judges.
Fourth to come on stage was The Exchange, who performed "Love Runs Out" originally by One Republic. The group is composed of former contestants from past seasons of "The Sing-Off" who all met backstage. Such experience gave them the advantage and the group did not disappoint with their performance.
Next was SanFran6, which performed Ariana Grande's "Break Free." Newly-formed for more than a month, their performance at "The Sing-Off" was the first time they sang in front of a huge crowd. Last to perform was the Melodores from The Vanderbilt University, who sang Jason Derulo's "Trumpets."
The Melodores, Traces and The Exchange made it to the next round where judges get to choose the song they will perform. Shawn chose Ed Sheeran's "Sing for The Exchange" while Jewel made Traces perform Whitney Houston's "I'm Every Woman."
Meanwhile, The Melodores sang Hozier's "Take Me To Church." While all three performances were flawless, in the end, the judges chose the Melodores. According to Celeb Dirty Laundry, the all-male a cappella group would not only take home the $50,000 prize but would also have a recording contract from Epic/Sony Records.
