As the school year comes to a close, the Diamond Bar High School choir department hosted their annual Brahma Sings performance competition online. Performances were hosted virtually on Zoom alongside a video recording and choir’s first ever Twitch live stream.

The singing competition, organized by choir director Richard Langham,  included participants from all grade levels as they performed their songs of choice. The contestants  dress up and perform on the Zoom call with special effects and backgrounds. Freshman Kaylee Motus was the winner of the Brahma Sings competition and dubbed the 2020-2021 Brahma Idol from six other finalists. This is the second time in a row that a freshman has won the Brahma Sings competition, with last year’s Brahma Idol being Daniel Illingworth.

“With no exaggeration, the contestants were some of the most talented people I’ve seen, every single person gave an absolutely stunning performance, and it was absolutely clear everybody loved performing,” sophomore Hannah Pacis said. “The performances that didn’t win were still strong and notable, each one leaving a lasting impression on the audience, and by a look at the chat, they agreed with me.” 

While Pacis was not one of the six finalists, she stayed to support her choir members during the competition through the Twitch livestream. Many of the contestants said that they were impressed by the execution of the singing competition, even those who participated in the competition last year. 

“Of course, the competition did not carry its full potential purely out of taking place in a pandemic. But I have to give credit to the team working on it, as it was still well executed and enjoyable,” Pacis said.

The competition was also live streamed for the first time on Twitch, a popular streaming platform for broadcasting live shows. The Twitch livestream allowed family members and friends to watch the show without interrupting the competition itself. While the performances’ virtual nature affected the quality of performances and caused occasional technical difficulties, it did not seem to affect the attitude of the performers.