The Exeter University Bluebelles

In honor of the 2017 ICCA tournament, The A Cappella Blog pursued short interviews with competing groups to develop insights into why and how groups approach competition, and to get appropriately excited for the tremendous shows ahead of us.

What’s your group name and on what date is your group’s quarterfinal?

We are The Bluebelles and we will be competing at the Exeter Quarterfinal on the 5th of February.

How long has your group been around? Have you competed before?

The Bluebelles was formed in 2013, so we're only just turning 4,  and we competed in the ICCAs for the first time last year.

Why are you competing this year? What does your group hope to accomplish or get out of the experience?

We are competing again this year because we loved meeting groups from around the country, competing at a high level against really strong competition, and challenges ourselves to perform in front of a large audience and knowledgeable judges in 2016. This year, we are pushing ourselves out of our comfort zone even more with our arrangements, and we'd love to impress the a cappella community with what we can do as a group as we grow,  and gain more experience of competing at this level.

How is your group preparing for competition?

To prepare, we are increasing our rehearsals in the run up to the competition, especially rehearsing with microphones as last year's competition was the first time we had ever performed with them. We also started learning music over the Christmas break, to free up time during the term to work on performance and choreography. 

If you were to describe your group, or the set your group is planning for competition with just three words, what would they be?

Three words to describe our set for the competition would be: ambitious, jazzy and light-hearted.

You can follow The Bluebelles using the information below:

Website: www.exeterguild.org/societies/acappella/
Facebook: www.facebook.com/bluebellesacappella
Twitter: @The_Bluebelles