Everything Upside Down: A Southern Show Choir Recap (Feb. 7)

Normally these Southern show choir recaps start with something a bit show choir-adjacent. But man, is this author speechless after this last weekend. After what is at the very least a shocking and insane weekend in the Southern show choir world, both a recap and some significant takeaways are in order.

Oak Mountain King of the Mountain Invitational

PHOTO: West Jones wins at Oak Mountain | Nikki Barlow Overstreet

The first of two loud overall results from this weekend can be found in over Birmingham, where West Jones pulled off arguably the largest upset in Southern show choir in the last decade (no, that is not an overstatement). This is the breakdown as simply and structurally as possible: West Jones is a tweener middle/large mixed group that won a Grand Championship already this season, but only against a similarly sized group in Northeast Jones (although it was a complete sweep) who they proceeded to lose to at their next competition (placing behind Brandon as well to earn the 2RU position). To bounce back from that result and take down a Southern powerhouse like Homewood (ranked 2^nd overall in the South after last season) is fundamentally insane, and West Jones should be all the more prouder after pulling off such a feat. To give context of how crazy this is, this result marks the first time Homewood has lost to a group from a smaller division since the 2015 Jackson Prep Masters. Don’t forget, there's still the entire rest of the competition to cover.

Spain Park and Madison Central are two groups that caught a lot of people off guard, this author included, with their 3RU and 4RU placements respectively. It wasn’t contested either, as literally every single judge had them in their resulting positions. This means that these groups both convincingly beat other programs such as Auburn, Vestavia Hills, Tift County, and Homewood Nexus. This marks incredible growth and promise for both of these rising programs. With West Jones winning Grand Champions (including a resultant middle mixed division title) and Homewood winning the large mixed division title, the other tiers weren’t as jaw-dropping in terms of shock factor. The favorites seemed to hold their on for the most part, with West Marion clearing out the small mixed division and Homewood’s girls group clearing out that division. Final results are posted below (five finalists):

GC) West Jones “Imagination” (BV)

1RU) Homewood “The Network” (BC)

2RU) Spain Park “Rhapsody In Blue”

3RU) Madison Central “Reveille”

4RU) Auburn “Varsity Singers”

1^st in Large) Homewood “The Network”

1^st in Middle) West Jones “Imagination”

1^st in Small) West Marion “New Era”

1^st in Womens) Homewood “Nexus”

Only Group in Mens) Auburn “Men at Work”

Jackson Academy Show Choir Invitational

PHOTO: Tupelo sweeps at JASI | Lori Harrison Robertson

The other half of the tumultuous weekend to Jackson, where the ladies of Tupelo have finally pulled off their long awaited and well-deserved prize of a Grand Championship title. Despite placing second heading into finals, Tupelo rallied and pulled off a complete sweep over Grenada to earn the program their first Grand Championship title as a standalone single-gender group. Longtime Southern show choir observers understand how much this means not only to the program up there in Tupelo, but to the circuit as a whole. With Tupelo as Grand Champions and Grenada as 1RU, the 2RU placement was earned by a debuting Northwest Rankin show. However, the 3RU and 4RU have an interest to them. Despite Biloxi beating Hoover to earn the 3A division title, Hoover came back in finals to top Biloxi and earn the 3RU placement. The 2A tier was small with a lone Pearl River Central, but the direct matchup between Morton and Clinton Christian Academy in the 1A tier was won by the latter. Final results are posted below (Five finalists):

GC) Tupelo “Synergy” (Sweep)

1RU) Grenada “Visions”

2RU) Northwest Rankin “The Ambassadors”

3RU) Hoover “Paradigm”

4RU) Biloxi “Sound Surge”

1^st in 4A) Grenada “Visions”

1^st in 3A) Biloxi “Sound Surge”

Only Group in 2A) Pearl River Central “Central Attraction”

1^st in 1A) Clinton Christian Academy “Extreme”

1^st in Single-Gender) Tupelo “Synergy”

Northeast Jones Classic

PHOTO: Brandon sweeps at NEJ | Katie King

With the other two competitions causing shockwaves across both the Southern region and the entire nation, a fairly calm and predicted set of results were due. Thankfully, that’s what occurred at the Northeast Jones Classic. Following the preliminary round, Oxford was initially listed as First Runner-Up. However, sources working at the event tell HomeRoom that inconsistencies emerged in how judges evaluated earlier, smaller groups compared to later performances. While this does explain Oxford's lower placement in finals compared to prelims (as the difference between 5th and 2nd in finals ended up being nearly 50 points), do not let this diminish Oxford's performance or them making finals at this event. With that being said, while the preliminary results were rumored to be closer than the final, a Brandon sweep topped the event, followed by a South Jones 1RU placement (accompanied by a 2A division win). Brandon Bellas (the only single-gender group here) won 2RU, followed by Sumrall at 3RU and Oxford at 4RU (who also won the 1A division). Final results are posted below (Five finalists):

GC) Brandon “Brio” (Sweep)

1RU) South Jones “Company”

2RU) Brandon “Bellas”

3RU) Sumrall “Legacy”

4RU) Oxford “Sound”

1^st in 4A) Brandon “Brio”

1^st in 2A) South Jones “Company”

1^st in 1A) Oxford “Sound”

Only Group in Single Gender) Brandon “Bellas”

Looking Forward

With another round of Southern show choir in the books, it’s time to look forward to the third weekend of the season. Here’s a brief look below at some of the upcoming competitions (and featured groups) this next weekend.

Homewood South Central Classic (Homewood, Ala.)

-       Clinton “Attache”

-       Oak Mountain “Singers”

-       Auburn “Varsity Singers”

-       Spain Park “Rhapsody In Blue”

-       Oak Mountain “The Muses”

-       Pisgah “Innergy”

Tupelo King City Classic (Tupelo, Miss.)

-       Grenada “Visions”

-       Prairie “The Ambassadors”

-       Madison Central “Reveille”

-       Biloxi “Sound Surge”

-       Hoover “Paradigm”

West Jones Invitational (Laurel, Miss.)

-       Petal “Soundsations”

-       South Jones “Company”

-       Northeast Jones “Gold Horizons”

-       West Marion “New Era”

Rome Three Rivers Show Choir Invitational (Rome, Ga.)

-       Tift County “8^th Street Singing Company”

-       Donelson Christian Academy “Legacy”

-       Tift County “Ladies Choice”

-       Lake Forest Middle School “Revolution”