Here’s a video of CG’s prelims performance!

https://youtu.be/9vyl69ooGVM?feature=shared

(Sorry, I don’t know how to put the actual link)

Here’s some more videos!

Oak Mountain prelims: https://youtu.be/_PokKIxRGK4?feature=shared
Noblesville prelims: https://youtu.be/_izGhorGmLY?feature=shared

Still can’t find a video for Findlay finals, but I hope this helps!

You left out: They get a free entry next year.

Yeah, i don’t think just an apology will settle this. This is the “Big” Competition of the year. The “Show Choir Nationals” and that group payed who knows how much to be there. I agree with JWill. Free Entry for Brownsburg next year!

They should absolutely receive a free entry to next years competition at Nationals. Groups spend thousands upon thousands of dollars to participate in an event like Nationals. It is the least that could be done due to the tabulation error.

There's no question for me that Center Grove is choir of the year. It's difficult to "rank" show choirs, but they literally checked all of the boxes.

First is a flawless, undefeated season with best vocals at every single competition they attended and best choreography at most.

Second, and this gets overlooked a lot when discussing choirs' records, but they competed six times. That's double the number of comps of a group like Attaché, and while it's certainly believable that Clinton could pull off an undefeated season by competing six times, it's just objectively more difficult to keep up a streak the more you compete. I think it actually gets exponentially more difficult the more competitions you add, so CG gets my full respect here.

Lastly, as you pointed out, the depth and strength of their schedule was way up there - perhaps the toughest of any group in 2024 - and they still came out on top every time. I actually think John Burroughs has their best show from a national-score-sheet-relevance perspective since 2013, so I wish they would have been at a more high-profile event this year. For whatever reason, though, they weren't. And while they beat their region rivals and fellow national titan Los Al, so did Center Grove.

Linn-Mar also went undefeated (and like Burroughs, they had vocal/choreo sweep at every competition they attended), so they're way up there too. But they only competed four times and didn't battle outside of Iowa, so I think Sound System has the edge here.

I rarely put numbers on groups and I'm certainly not about to make a giant list, but every now and then there's a choir that just has a record so stellar it deserves some extra praise. Congratulations to CG and their whole team - the band, the crew, the parents and volunteers, and of course the directors, choreographers, and arrangers who crafted such an impressive show. What a tremendous way to end the season!

Agreed 100%, Häakon! Word for word! Kudos to Sound System!

Those are some great points. The strength of schedule is especially mind blowing. I can’t recall the last time a group has competed at two “national” competitions in the same year. This is the first time that WWS has had such a massive lineup since 2019, I would even say that the choral classic this year was the biggest show choir competition since the pandemic. Not to mention going to show choir nationals which is always a super tough lineup, they really established themselves in multiple regions and went up against as many big groups as possible.

Its so much time and money to travel to so many competitions so it makes sense why this doesn’t occur very often, but I would agree, they are really the clear champions this year— especially when it comes to singing.

My best guess at a ranking, which is quite difficult without seeing every group at the same venue…

1. Clinton “Attaché” - they’re absolutely back, with the classic mature vocals and dazzling choreography. Their show has a logical progression, and the artwork on the back TVs really enhances the scenery. Only criticism I could find of anything in the show was the use of the venue’s lights — they overpowered some of the colors and took away from the effect of the baby doll. While we’re at it, that girl delivered one of the most effective performances I’ve ever seen. If the only negative is something that has nothing to do with the kids on the stage, I’d say they’re pretty darn good.

2. Center Grove - My first time ever seeing them live was today in Nashville. I had my doubts about their victory over Los Alamitos, but after seeing them live, I feel confident in saying that the video didn’t do them justice. Very mature vocals, clean choreography, great song choices, and great costumes. Also, Seal Lullaby (that’s the Eric Whitacre song, yes?) is a favorite of mine from band, and hearing such a well-written concert piece performed expertly was a treat today.

3. John Burroughs - now we’re getting to groups that I didn’t get to see live this season. I have a known soft-spot for dark shows, and I absolutely love this show. They go really hard with the choreography too — such energy is always fun to watch. If the choir’s vocals weren’t enough to rave about, the jaw-dropping talent of their soloists certainly must be.

Los Alamitos and Linn-Marr are probably the next two for me, but I think those three are certainly in those spots. Haven’t seen many of the other perennial powerhouses and undefeated groups.

While a comparison is fun to do, there are different rules in different states making comparing shows difficult. In Iowa, you are only allowed to have one adult in the combo for competitions in Iowa. This makes it difficult for Iowa to attract groups from outside states to come and compete in Iowa. Our friends from Brownsburg told us that Indiana schools often make their kids choose one team over another which often prevents show choirs from having kids in their bands as well as not being allowed to use football players for example.

Congrats to Center Grove, that was an amazing show in Nashville and a well-deserved Grand Champion award. Glad I got to be there for it.

This wasn't true for Center Grove. They have 2 football players in Sound System. My son is a junior and the other is a Soph.

This is one of the biggest competitions of the year, as you can see by the prelims scores Brownsburg missed finals by 0.1 points. Unfortunately that’s just the way it goes at competitions like these, there is so much talent that not every group can make it to the next round. Many of these groups would win grand champion if they competed at any other competition today. It’s not that the judges don’t care for that, it’s just that when you have 3 groups like Kennedy, noblesville, and Brownsburg that are all at a high level, they can barely edge each other out to make it to finals

This is so true. Go back and look at all the previous years. There are always some amazing groups that don’t make finals at this competition.