The spotlight was shining bright at the Second Annual Lip Sync Battle Nov. 9 in the auditorium at Texas A&M University-San Antonio.
Participants got to show off their skills by performing songs from different genres including the 2000’s and Disney.
The winners of first and second place got a $100 gift card and a $50 one.
Psychology freshman Nevaeh Mendoza, who lip-synced to “Dynamite” by Taio Cruz and “Get Jinxed” by League of Legends ft. Djerv wanted to try something new.
“I wanted to get out of my comfort zone. I really like to do things like “hmm I don’t like this, let’s do it,” Mendoza said of taking on a challenge.
Biology freshman Ariel Ledezma went to support Mendoza and to have an eventful evening.
“I just wanted to see. I never got to go to events in high school because I was always so busy with after school programs,” Ledezma said.
The crowd seemed excited and anxious for the show to get started.
The competition went on for four rounds, each time eliminating a contestant depending on how much the audience cheered for each.
Starting off with the first round, the participants chose what song they wanted to do. The crowd cheered and went wild for Francisco Vazquez with the popular song “Good Tonight” from the DreamWorks movie “The Bad Guys” and for biology senior Treife Le with the song “dumb dumb” by Mazie.
Le, whose songs also included “When Will My Life Begin?” by Mandy Moore and “I’m Still Standing” by Elton John,decided to do the show in a spontaneous moment.
“I thought it would be fun to join the competition and I got inspired to do the lip sync because of some clips I’ve seen on YouTube,” Le said.
As contestants continued being eliminated through the rounds, anticipation felt denser within the audience.
The final elimination round had attendees at the edge of their seats, waiting to give their loudest cheer for their favorite contestant
Le won second place
“I’m happy I got $50 in a gift card,”Le said. With excitement radiating from her, she said she had not decided what to do with the prize. “I don’t know, maybe some items that I wanted.” Le said.
First place winner was sociology sophomore Francisco Vazquez with his last victory song “Respect” by Aretha Franklin.
“I can’t describe it, I really can’t,” Vazquez said.
Vazquez won the audiences’ hearts while he jumped around the stage wearing a boa and a patriotic hat. He was able to show a different side of himself with his groovy dancing during his last performance.
Francisco Vazquez said he competed in last year’s first lip sync battle, which motivated him to practice for a whole year to perform in this one. By doing so, he built up anticipation to “do this and let loose to just feel free and just dance,” Vazquez said.
Vazquez said he will save his gift card for a special occasion where he can make good use of it.
Meanwhile, Vazquez had a special guest in the audience.
Valerie Vazquez, his sister, attended the event as moral support for her brother.
“I wanted to see my brother perform and see how well he’d do and wishing him the best of luck,” Valerie said.
