Grand Champion
Best Vocals
Best Choreography
Outstanding Bass Soloist [Prelims] (Eli VonDielingen)
Outstanding Treble Soloist [Prelims] (Anna DeLuna)
Outstanding Bass Soloist [Finals] (Eli VonDielingen)
Show Choir Nationals is an amazing multi day event for these groups. Getting the chance to perform on the Grand Ole Opry and stay in the immaculate Gaylord Opryland Hotel is truly a once-in-a-lifetime experience. I spoke with many performers from the three Indianapolis based groups that competed to see what their favorite moments were from this multi-day competition. To read that, go here: Morning Finals on Famed Nashville Stage: Show Choir Nationals from a Performer's Perspective.
CORRECT prelims totals! (Not averaged) A friend, who probably wishes to remain anonymous or they could've posted, sent me the prelims scores. What obviously happened was Connie Mulligan's show design scores were not added to any group's overall total score. Her scores were all correctly calculated, but the show design section was omitted from the total. SCN does decide to average the scores. I am going to list them as un-averaged, just so you can see how close 5-7 really was, and also because my brain doesn't understand decimals this early.
1st- Center Grove 1176
2nd- Findlay 1107.5
3rd- Oak Mountain 1040.5
4th- Grenada 1033
5th- Kennedy 1003
6th- Brownsburg 1002.5
7th- Noblesville 1000.5
8th- Jackson Academy 985.5
9th- Fairfield 973
10th- Glenwood 960.5
11th- Manchester 949.5
12th- BEAT 916
I am surprised that no one caught this the day of. Total Show Design scores were all in the 30s and 40s when averaged, even Center Grove. From my experience at SCN, finalists usually get 50 points or more for show design. I also find that, consistently, when you use the SCN scoresheet (as we do at MOShow) any group that is finals worthy will have 200 points. It was VERY weird to see the 3rd place group have 198 points after averaging. That is very low. That means 4 finalists were under 200. That immediately caught my eye as weird when the scores were posted on here. Yes, one of the judges scored very low, but the others were all scoring above 200 for the majority of groups, not even just finalists.
Apology to Brownsburg Spotlight Singers and Company
Dear Show Choir Community,
Show Choir Nationals would like to address an issue that has come to our attention regarding the preliminary round of the mixed division competition. An error in our scoring system occurred, which unfortunately impacted the rightful qualification of Brownsburg Spotlight Singers and Company in the finals competition.
We value Brownsburg Spotlight Singers and Company's talent and dedication, and we deeply regret any missed opportunities resulting from this error. We understand the disappointment this has caused, and we extend our sincerest apologies.
While we cannot turn back time, please know that we are taking immediate steps to review and enhance our scoring procedures to prevent such errors from happening in the future. Your continued trust and confidence in Show Choir Nationals is appreciated, and we are committed to ensuring a fair and accurate outcome for future competitions.
Thank you for your understanding and patience as we work to address this matter.
Yeah, i don’t think just an apology will settle this. This is the “Big” Competition of the year. The “Show Choir Nationals” and that group payed who knows how much to be there. I agree with JWill. Free Entry for Brownsburg next year!
They should absolutely receive a free entry to next years competition at Nationals. Groups spend thousands upon thousands of dollars to participate in an event like Nationals. It is the least that could be done due to the tabulation error.
What a season for center grove. While they have come close, this is their first undefeated season of the 21st century*. Super impressive considering how they went up against pretty much every one of the best groups in the nation this year. The only other groups on their level this year are probably Linn marr and John Burroughs (maybe attache). Bravo to all the groups today! So much talent up there.
*excluding 2021 because of Covid and all of the restrictions on groups trying to compete
There's no question for me that Center Grove is choir of the year. It's difficult to "rank" show choirs, but they literally checked all of the boxes.
First is a flawless, undefeated season with best vocals at every single competition they attended and best choreography at most.
Second, and this gets overlooked a lot when discussing choirs' records, but they competed six times. That's double the number of comps of a group like Attaché, and while it's certainly believable that Clinton could pull off an undefeated season by competing six times, it's just objectively more difficult to keep up a streak the more you compete. I think it actually gets exponentially more difficult the more competitions you add, so CG gets my full respect here.
Lastly, as you pointed out, the depth and strength of their schedule was way up there - perhaps the toughest of any group in 2024 - and they still came out on top every time. I actually think John Burroughs has their best show from a national-score-sheet-relevance perspective since 2013, so I wish they would have been at a more high-profile event this year. For whatever reason, though, they weren't. And while they beat their region rivals and fellow national titan Los Al, so did Center Grove.
Linn-Mar also went undefeated (and like Burroughs, they had vocal/choreo sweep at every competition they attended), so they're way up there too. But they only competed four times and didn't battle outside of Iowa, so I think Sound System has the edge here.
I rarely put numbers on groups and I'm certainly not about to make a giant list, but every now and then there's a choir that just has a record so stellar it deserves some extra praise. Congratulations to CG and their whole team - the band, the crew, the parents and volunteers, and of course the directors, choreographers, and arrangers who crafted such an impressive show. What a tremendous way to end the season!
Those are some great points. The strength of schedule is especially mind blowing. I can’t recall the last time a group has competed at two “national” competitions in the same year. This is the first time that WWS has had such a massive lineup since 2019, I would even say that the choral classic this year was the biggest show choir competition since the pandemic. Not to mention going to show choir nationals which is always a super tough lineup, they really established themselves in multiple regions and went up against as many big groups as possible.
Its so much time and money to travel to so many competitions so it makes sense why this doesn’t occur very often, but I would agree, they are really the clear champions this year— especially when it comes to singing.
My best guess at a ranking, which is quite difficult without seeing every group at the same venue…
1. Clinton “Attaché” - they’re absolutely back, with the classic mature vocals and dazzling choreography. Their show has a logical progression, and the artwork on the back TVs really enhances the scenery. Only criticism I could find of anything in the show was the use of the venue’s lights — they overpowered some of the colors and took away from the effect of the baby doll. While we’re at it, that girl delivered one of the most effective performances I’ve ever seen. If the only negative is something that has nothing to do with the kids on the stage, I’d say they’re pretty darn good.
2. Center Grove - My first time ever seeing them live was today in Nashville. I had my doubts about their victory over Los Alamitos, but after seeing them live, I feel confident in saying that the video didn’t do them justice. Very mature vocals, clean choreography, great song choices, and great costumes. Also, Seal Lullaby (that’s the Eric Whitacre song, yes?) is a favorite of mine from band, and hearing such a well-written concert piece performed expertly was a treat today.
3. John Burroughs - now we’re getting to groups that I didn’t get to see live this season. I have a known soft-spot for dark shows, and I absolutely love this show. They go really hard with the choreography too — such energy is always fun to watch. If the choir’s vocals weren’t enough to rave about, the jaw-dropping talent of their soloists certainly must be.
Los Alamitos and Linn-Marr are probably the next two for me, but I think those three are certainly in those spots. Haven’t seen many of the other perennial powerhouses and undefeated groups.
While a comparison is fun to do, there are different rules in different states making comparing shows difficult. In Iowa, you are only allowed to have one adult in the combo for competitions in Iowa. This makes it difficult for Iowa to attract groups from outside states to come and compete in Iowa. Our friends from Brownsburg told us that Indiana schools often make their kids choose one team over another which often prevents show choirs from having kids in their bands as well as not being allowed to use football players for example.
Congrats to Center Grove, that was an amazing show in Nashville and a well-deserved Grand Champion award. Glad I got to be there for it.
Very shocked Brownsburg didn’t make the finals. They are amazing! The sound and complex dance moves are insane. They just don’t follow traditional show choir show formats and I guess some judges don’t care for that. Very disappointing.
This is one of the biggest competitions of the year, as you can see by the prelims scores Brownsburg missed finals by 0.1 points. Unfortunately that’s just the way it goes at competitions like these, there is so much talent that not every group can make it to the next round. Many of these groups would win grand champion if they competed at any other competition today. It’s not that the judges don’t care for that, it’s just that when you have 3 groups like Kennedy, noblesville, and Brownsburg that are all at a high level, they can barely edge each other out to make it to finals
Show Choir Nationals 2024
