Participants singing during the event. Photo by Alexis Matthew Reyes

Voices of the Business and Management (B&M) Vipers overpowered other clusters, making their way to grab the championship for this year’s Karaoke Challenge held at the Arrupe Hall this morning, Aug. 12.

This event was one of the highlights of the 68th Ateneo Fiesta Celebration. The fiesta committee, in partnership with the General Assembly of Class Presidents (GACP) and the SAMAHAN Central Board organized the Karaoke Challenge with the theme, “I love OPM”.

Representatives from nine clusters of underwent the elimination round, wherein they sang their own version of Eraserheads songs. Different music genres were heard from each group of contestants, ranging from Rock, R&B, Jazz and Reggae.

Participants in groups of three were judged according to creativity, group harmony, sustainability, and audience impact. After the preliminary round, representatives from the Nursing Panthers, Social Sciences (SS) Dragons, and B&M Vipers were announced as Top 3 qualifiers of the Clincher Round in no particular order.

For the Final Round, each group was tasked to sing Ang Huling El Bimbo by Eraserheads while completing a certain challenge. The SS Dragons took on “Bawal Mahulog, Nakakamatay” challenge, wherein they needed to keep balloons floating while they were singing.

On the other hand, the B&M Vipers did the “i-Shoot Mo Te!” challenge, in which one contestant held a basket in her head and the other two shot newspaper balls into the basket.

Meanwhile, the Nursing Panthers were able to pull off the song while feathers, shaved ice, and crepe paper were blown to them using an industrial fan in their “Feel Me” challenge.

In the end, the B&M Vipers were announced as the champion, while the Panthers and Dragons were proclaimed as 1st and 2nd runners-up, respectively.

Jesus Montajes, the event’s chairman of the board of judges, commented regarding his experience with judging the Karaoke Challenge.

“It was a fun-filled experience and was very ratifying for me,” he said.

“The contestants deserve all the applause. They were all very passionate and most importantly, we all had fun,” Montajes added.

Lizette Jeanne Bohol, one of the Karaoke Challenge champions, expressed her thoughts about their win.

“Overwhelmed kami kasi nanalo ang B&M. It’s [a] big pleasure na kami ang napili ng aming [cluster] representative to battle for the Karaoke Challenge,” Bohol said.