Photo by Elizabeth Lucy ‘15

Lafayette’s female a cappella group, Cadence, could be the next face of competition television. The group was recently contacted about auditioning for NBC’s America’s Got Talent, an American Talent show that reaches an average of 12 million viewers.

Kate Warren ‘14 received an email almost two weeks ago with the subject line “Inquiry.” Confused, she opened it to find an email from a woman asking if Cadence might be interested in auditioning for the popular reality show.

Warren eagerly responded to the email and within two hours received a call from Los Angeles and was overwhelmed with information about flying out to California and the potential of meeting the celebrity judges.

Although the group is remaining grounded and not thinking too far into the future, making it past the first few rounds of the process would mean working with host Nick Cannon and judges Howard Stern, Howie Mandel, Heidi Klum, and Melanie Brown (better remembered as Scary Spice from the British pop group, The Spice Girls).

The first step of the audition process is to make a 90-second video that displayed the natural talent of the group. Cadence filmed a medley of Taylor Swift’s “We Are Never Getting Back Together” and “Trouble”, along with Marina and the Diamond’s “Lies”. The medley included solos from Warren, Lauren Greenfeld ‘14, and Olivia Hadley ‘16.

While the entire group was extremely excited about the opportunity, some reservations quickly arose. Progressing in the audition process could mean missing classes and being away for an extended period of time.

“We’re not even anywhere close to there,” Warren said. “What would be ideal for me would be if we could take a group trip to New York City and audition. Even if we didn’t make it or get really far, that would just be a really cool opportunity for us to travel together.”

The girls are used to performing at small events for the Lafayette community. National television or even auditions in front of Hollywood producers would be a whole other ballpark.

“Cadence has had a problem in the past with our performance aspect. We can sound really good, but I think they’re really looking for the performance type,” Warren said. But Cadence president Laura Scott ’16 believes their uniqueness as an all-female group will give them an edge. “Female a cappella groups are sort of a new thing. There’s not really that many famous ones, so they’re probably looking for a new talent with that.”

Cadence submitted their video this week, and is waiting to hear back from the production and casting team at America’s Got Talent. While they are completely unsure where the process will take them, the Lafayette community is hoping to breed the world’s next big superstars.