Zeta Tau Alpha - ΖΤΑ Sorority Ratings at BU

Zeta won the award for Best Vocals in a competition called "Sing". That should be an automatic placement in Pigskin.

What does this have to do with them being so full of themselves that they talked about being on Pigskin days before the competition was over. In addition, they "won" best vocals as voted by the audience not the judges. It is ridiculous to assume that is an automatic Pigskin bid. They had one good singer - the others were quite pitchy -, so, to a trained ear, didn't have the best vocals overall. They also copied an old Theta Act, so no originality. They got what they deserved.

The audience should have a vote. Popular vote is important and should be a factor in winning. As for originality, Sing has been around for decades. All acts incorporate various elements of past performances, costumes and themes. Everyone does it!! Everyone knows this.

And I saw "Pigskin" hashtags and tweets from all the groups. Family members posting "Can't wait to see you in Pigskin" and people posting "We are Pigskin #1" and "Pigskin Bound" Again, everyone was doing this for motivation after many weeks and hours of hard work and practice. The motivation is like getting ready for a sporting event. Of course, you want your team to win.

I agree that creating an original act after so many years is hard. However, this year was so low in originality (with the exception of KOT - and even they started with the same song as the ADPi's crayon act of 2009) that it was anyone's game in the end. When I say low in originality, I am thinking Zeta ( Theta 2010 ), ChiO (AChiO 2010), Kappa ( PiPhi 2011 - though not as similar to the original as the other 2), PiChi forcing a hymn where it doesn't belong and Kappa Sig and Fiji both with a twist on the explorer act that has been beaten to death. And some of the more innovative acts had somewhat previously used themes, like Theta - ADPi did toddlers and tiaras not long ago. Although Theta's theme was a parody of Miss Universe and didn't use any of the music used in ADPis number it was a Beauty Pageant nonetheless. Theta at least had an easy to follow story well supported by the music and their act was almost like a mini-musical, so it had some innovation in it. As far as the audience getting a vote, I can't agree with that. Who knows if it is the real audience voting or if groups have mobilized friends and family to vote for them? The TriDelts sitting behind me last Saturday were texting friends and family the voting info and asking them to vote for TriDelt. I know this because I turned around and asked them. Their response was "everyone does it".

It's gotten to be like the movies and the repetition of themes. Movies are constantly repeating themes of War, Love Stories, Historical, etc. It's hard to be different anymore and remember, Sing is for fun and put on by amateur student volunteers. As far as voting, for example, the Academy Awards are voted on by their peers and there is probably collaboration in the voting by those associated with a certain movie. There is not a single panel of judges. It's time for Sing to recognize audience and peer opinion in the final vote tally.

If you let the students decide, you may get a result like The Lariat did with ADPi winning all the categories. Yikes. Too risky.