The first Twisted Thursday of the year took place Thursday (Aug. 31) and took the form of the annual Lip-Sync Competition. WNHU, the University radio station, and CSELO brought the entire event together for the third year in a row, and Bucknall Theatre was packed with dozen of students ready to watch their peers perform synchronized singing to the songs of their choice. 

Gio Roper and Mary Kate Kelly coordinated the event. According to Kelly, the premise of the show came from the iconic segment of The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.

“It became so popular that it became its own show,” Kelly said. “It resonated with a lot of people, and we wanted to bring that to the University.”

Lisa LaFountaine, Promotions Director of WNHU, explained that the school radio was in charge of “supplying the judges, music, and DJ pre-show by MC Jeremy Bellman” while CSELO was in charge of the logistics of assembling the event.

“It was a really big collaboration,” LaFountaine said.

Eight acts competed head to head for the top three winning spots; the victor were awarded prizes by CSELO. The entire event was hosted by Kelly as the MC, with several song puns to keep the crowd hyped, and Bellman in charge of the music and turntables.

Performances ranged from single acts performed by returning competitors and new challengers. Shannon Holloway sang *NSYNC’s “Bye Bye Bye” and Jordan Green rocked out to “Sk8r Boi” by Avril Lavigne. Others competed in groups, which ranged from duos to quartets, and included a student group ‘Paige and Friends’ lip syncing to Grease’s iconic “You’re the One that I Want.”  Two students sang as a duet, bringing soul to the theatre with the cult classic “Don’t Stop Believing.” Even non-students joined in when a student performer brought her sister on stage with her to sing the summer classic “I Know What You Did Last Summer” by Sean Mendes and Camilla Cabello.

All performances were evaluated by a team of five WNHU judges, whose reviews were based on the lip-sync accuracy, stage choreography, audience hype, and devotion to their songs.

MC Bellman, along with the Girls Soccer team, treated the audience to a sing-along of “We’re All in This Together” from High School Musical while the judges decided on the finalists.

In the end, it came down to three soloists. Third place went to a student for his rendition of Mariah Carey’s “We Belong Together,” Shannon Holloway was runner up with her “Bye Bye Bye” performance topping her work the previous year, and the first place award went to another student with her lip sync of “Love on Top” by Beyoncé.