House Singing Almost Killed Us

I have been awfully busy.

As I returned to my school, Kolej Tuanku Ja’afar, after my 6-week Summer break, my housemates and I were tasked to manage the house singing performance. We had started discussing our performance before the long break started, picking the songs to sing and trying to find some catchy dance moves. However, things are all easier said than done. Discussing choreography and dance moves orally did not help much when it came to teaching juniors how to sing at the right keys, or synchronising their dances. Having only 10 of us to manage the rest of the house of approximately 70 teens was not easy.

A brief info about the KTJ House Singing, it is the first interhouse challenge of the year, for its advantage of bringing the entire house together and compete with the other houses regardless of gender and age. In KTJ, there are 8 boarding houses (4 senior boys, 3 senior girls and 1 junior house). My house, Naquiyuddin, the Green house which mascot is sheep, selected Some Nights by f.u.n. and Check Yes Juliet by We The Kings as our performance songs.

 

This was my second house singing. Despite my acknowledgement that managing junior is tough, I saw that everyone involved had a lot of fun that night, when we all just enjoyed ourselves throughout the performance. I was inspired by the house’s spade of the game- that we convert hard work and practise into our pride and fun that night, leaving us something to talk about even 20 years down the road.

  I helped out our props team this year for my love for crafts. While Some Nights is a song about coming home with a new sense of independence and pride, we referred to its music video’s association with military elements. Thus, we made war flags and also added marching movements in the song. A junior took an afternoon to complete an artwork for us too! Check yes Juliet is such a fun, energetic anthem that makes your heart goes pumping. It shows off the playful side of boys in reaching out to girls and requesting for a date. We had really catchy dance moves. And as one of the seniors in the house, I danced at the front, wearing a black blazer.

  Oh and I forgot to mention, I secured a solo part in Some Nights! I have experience doing a busking performance earlier this year, where I opened the event with Taylor Swift’s Safe and Sound. My house singing this year marks my first attempt in singing in front of a crowd of hundreds. You can probably watch it in the video below.

  While the other houses performed brilliantly as well, I enjoyed that night so much and am certain that these memories will stay with me forever. I particularly enjoyed Alia’s choreography of Look What You Make Me Do, Nobody and I Want It That Way. That performance crowned them champion for the first time in history.

The results:
1^st- Alia

2^nd- Irina (8 times champion!)

3^rd- Nadzaruddin

Best Choreography- Jawahir

Best Musical Companion- Naquiah

  It was an undeniably stressful fortnight, with UCAS application and studies to manage at the same time. But as I mentioned earlier, I will remember that moment.

By,

Euan Thum.