A Capella Invasion: Pentatonix UK Tour

[dropcap style=”font-size:100px; color:#992211;”]B[/dropcap]oring exams to one side, the key things on any teenager’s mind right now is: ‘How I can get a ticket for the Pentatonix tour and will Mom or Dad pick me up after the show?’

Trust me, I know these things. I’ve known these things for months now. The question is, what is this Pentatonix invasion? It’s not like they’re the Bay City Rollers or something, or are they?

Asking a random teenager (Pentaholic) to boil PTX down for me, I am reliably informed that the germ of the Pentatonix was born 14 some years ago in Arlington, Texas when Scott Hoying and Mitch Grassi became friends. Two years down the line and Kirstie (Kirsten) Maldonado joins the circle of friends and perform as ‘The Trio’, taking to YouTube with a cappella covers, gaining a significant amount of popularity with a cover of Lady Gaga’s ‘Telephone’ whilst entering a competition to meet the cast of Glee.

The stars began to align themselves further with Scott, who was studying popular music in California, hearing about a competition called The Sing-Off and meeting up with Avi (Avriel) Kaplan and Kevin Olusola. They won season three in 2011.

The power of the internet and YouTube is mighty and the group has gone on to release five albums, two of which are Christmas albums. Amongst others, they have won two Grammys for best vocal arrangement, YouTube Music Awards Response of the Year, Shorty Award for Best YouTube Musician, YouTube Music Award and That’s Christmas to Me went platinum.

Aside from That’s Christmas to Me their most recent PENTATONIX album debuted at number 1 on the US Billboard 200 and the group have been working with artists such as Tink and Jason Derulo.

Still can’t pin them down? Apart from their sell-out tours around the world, you may well have spotted them in Pitch Perfect 2. Failing that you will have heard ‘Can’t Sleep Love’ on your radios over the past month or so which (along with the rest of the album) showcases both their songwriting skills and incredible ability to arrange without the use of instrumentals.

Like the BCRs tartan scarves of yore, the UK will soon be awash with some slightly futuristic 80’s inspired high fashion and, instead of gangs of hoodie-wearing youths smoking dope in the parks, small groups of squeaky clean teens will be gathering on street corners singing a cappella – no bad thing.

Mom and Dad get your wallets out and prepare for a late night, the UK tour starts next week.

[button link=”http://ptxofficial.com/home” newwindow=”yes”] Pentatonix[/button]

Trebuchet Magazine

The aim of art is to represent not the outward appearance of things, but their inward significance. – Aristotle