The weekend ended on a high note for UF’s co-ed competitive a cappella group. No Southern Accent auditioned for producers of “America’s Got Talent” Sunday evening in Atlanta and landed a second audition in front of executive producers.
For the first audition, the singers performed segments of “Holy Grail” by Jay-Z featuring Justin Timberlake; “Radioactive” by Imagine Dragons; and “Bring Me to Life” by Evanescence.
Alex Greene, the group’s musical director, said producers reached out to the group about a month and a half ago after viewing some of their performances on YouTube. The singers were given a preferred audition, allowing them to skip the long lines of people waiting for a chance to perform.
“It weighs on the importance of social media,” the 22-year-old UF materials science and engineering senior said.
The 17-member group made the six-hour trip to the audition venue, AmericasMart Atlanta, on Sunday morning.
After impressing the first round of producers, the a cappella group sang “Radioactive” again for executive producers.
“They seemed like they liked us,” Greene said.
As far as the results of the audition, Greene said it depends on what the producers want. They will hear back from “America’s Got Talent” in January.
“There’s a ton of talented people,” he said. “You’ve got to be in it to win it.”
Twenty-one-year-old UF criminology senior and business management master’s student C.J. Wittus, the group’s president, said the singers were excited for the audition.
Alissa Kotranza, a 20-year-old UF journalism junior and the group’s performance director, said the choreography fit with robotic, sharp movements and freestyle.
She said this was the group’s first audition for a talent-based competitive television show.
A version of this story ran on page 4 on 11/4/2013 under the headline "No Southern Accent’s got talent"
