By Anda Zeng
Live blog by Zeng, Akemi Liyanage and Abby Chan
Ryerson University journalism students emerged victorious at this year’s RTA vs. Journalism Karaoke Competition.
The prizes of the evening: a 50-inch flat-screen television, a golden microphone trophy and program-wide bragging rights.
The event took place on Feb. 27 at Ryerson’s campus pub, the Ram in the Rye. Journalism students and students from the radio and television arts (RTA) program selected songs and took turns performing in front of their peers.
After every song, three judges from the Ryerson Students’ Union (RSU) each gave the performance a score out of 10.
The event was organized by the Journalism Course Union, the course union for RTA and the RSU. The event has become an opportunity for the two programs to show some friendly rivalry. Last year, RTA students won the competition.
During the first part of the evening, RTA students sang songs like Fergie’s “Fergalicious” and Eminem’s “The Real Slim Shady”. Journalism students represented their program with Lil Jon’s “Get Low” and TLC’s “No Scrubs”.
RTA student Agostino Leone, who sang Demi Lovato’s “Skyscraper”, earned the first 10 of the evening. He said he chose the song because of its emotional power.
“J-school! J-school! J-school!” chants remained strong for the first part of the event.
As the evening went on, however, RTA students filled the Ram in the Rye with their own cheers and signs.
“Journalism may have been leading in the beginning of the evening, but they ain’t seen nothing yet!” said RTA student Taylor L.N. before she and three others led the crowd in a cover of “Royals” by Lorde.
Soon, the cheers of “RTA! RTA! RTA!” grew louder than the cheers of the journalism students. Students filled the pub until performer’s struggled to see the lyrics on the monitor.
Three hours into the event, the crowd danced and sang along regardless of which program the performer was from. Beer and Backstreet Boys can have that effect on people.
Check out our live blog of the event below:
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