Last night saw the return of the highly anticipated Sing Off and as the halls entered the Union word went around that Falk Egg, who are notoriously known for their disregard for the tles and have been disqualified from the competition for the past few years, were stepping up their game and deciding to play by the rules.
The Sing Off is a place where hall spirit really comes alive giving everyone the opportunity to use their voices and share their Loughborough love and spirit, as long as you follow the three simple rules which are:
- No chanting during other halls’ 2 minutes
- No throwing any items
- No pushing and shoving
Not too hard to follow, right?
Heat One kicked off the competition with Cayley, Rutherford, Elvyn, Towers and Falk Egg.
Cayley and rival hall Rutherford primarily aimed their chants at one another, while it can be agreed that Elvyn had the best props in the building from a massive cardboard car to a banner reading bank of mum/dad (they certainly have a good sense of humour). Towers chants ma
y have been slightly harder to understand, but they made up for it with their dressing up and as always there was plenty of STD talk amongst the chants. Meanwhile Elvyn included a very well coordinated dab into their routine, and Falk Egg true to the rumours were on their best behaviour and stuck to the rules.
Heat Two saw Royce, Rigg Rut, Bill Mo, Bakewell and Harry French go head to head. This was bound to be a big one, as Bill Mo are the former Sing Off champions of not only last year but also 2012-13 and are known for being one of the loudest halls on campus, which they certainly proved. Whilst Royce kicked off the heat with plenty of chants directed at Telford and Bill Mo (and of course their longtime rivals Faraday) their dedication and enthusiasm couldn’t be missed as they waved flags to complete their The Purge theme. Rigg Rut went next and despite being a small hall were definitely one of the loudest. Bakewell’s police theme brought the rowdiness complete with blaring police sirens. One thing that seemed prominent in the chants this year was the strong grime influence with Harry French opting to chant to Stormzy’s ‘Shut Up’ (alongside mentioning the very current topic of the new JCs, I miss it too guys) and Rigg Rut to Skepta’s ‘That’s Not Me’ which certainly showed creativity among committee members. Many of the halls also went with the classic “Bakewell’s/Falk Egg’s/ Rutherford’s/The Holt’s on fire” a chant which I will never tire of hearing when walking around Loughborough.
Finally, Heat Three welcomed The Holt, Telford, Faraday, DC and Butler Court.
While The Holt is one of the smaller halls, their chants matched their (very clever) Holt Disney theme and they were more than enthusiastic. Of course, former Sing Off champions of 2014 Telford didn’t bring anything less than we expected, with a giant golden ticket banner to match their Charlie and the Chocolate factory theme. Faraday, who as always aimed their chants at Royce brought the noise and also nudity. Next was DC who rounded up their 2 minutes of madness with their hall chair throwing his shirt into the crowd and finally Butler Court showed as that they know how to joke about their roommate situation and threw in a Mexican wave but finished slightly earlier than needed, which may have cost them their place in 
the final.
This then moved on to the final with Elvyn and Falk Egg winning Heat One and Harry French and Bakewell winning Heat Two. However, instead of two halls winning Heat Three as expected, they were told only one hall was to go through to the final which was eventually revealed to be Telford much to the surprise of most who were expecting Faraday to also make it through.
The final 5 certainly brought their A game and gave it their best, but arguably the highlight was Falk Egg who despite playing by the rules in their heat decided to revert to their old tricks and instead of singing sat down in silence and gave the middle finger for their whole 2 minutes where the likes of Telford and Harry French joined in. After their time was up they began chanting ‘we are Falk Egg’ getting louder and louder in typical Falk Egg fashion alongside yelling ‘you pay our benefits’ at Elvyn (because what would the Sing Off be without playing up to some of those day old Loughborough hall stereotypes?!) They might not have won, but they stayed true to their reputation while also showing that they are 
one of the loudest and proudest halls on campus.
Finally, the winners were announced with Bakewell coming in at third, Elvyn at second and Harry French claiming the crown, which was no surprise as they were a clear favourite and their grime inspired chants were both original and funny.
The Sing Off 2016 was as always incredible and the love and dedication everyone has for their halls shone through, but I’m sure we can all agree that all the halls coming together at the end to chant Loughborough Walks on Water was the highlight of the night.
Article by Lydia Kah-Pavlou
Photos by Cade Morris, Ushandan Kirupalaratnam, Elias Monserrat and Gautham Kannan
