Tribeca: “Just Sing” Hits All the Right Notes
For a long time, a capella has had a certain reputation. While it may never be fully seen as cool, it’s certainly cooler than it has ever been. That change comes from the widespread success of the Pitch Perfect movie series and Glee, although diehard a capella fans will tell you that Glee is not a capella. Just like in Pitch Perfect, there’s a world of international collegiate a capella groups, and the Tribeca-premiering documentary Just Sing follows the hopes of one team as they dream of a capella glory.
The SoCal VoCals are the a capella team at the University of Southern California. The team is what you could call a legacy. Every single time the SoCal VoCals have entered the International Championship of Collegiate a Capella (ICCA), they have won first place. The current iteration of the SoCal VoCals can feel the pressure as they begin their a capella season. It’s up to them to raise the money, plan the set list, and practice enough to etch their names in the legacy of the SoCal VoCals.
courtesy of Tribeca
Just Sing follows the 2023 SoCal VoCal team as they seek to do the impossible. The team has won the ICCA championship five times, and it’s up to the 2023 team to win a record sixth time. What works for the documentary is that many people watching won’t know the outcome, so the tension is as palpable for the audience as it is for the singers who are experiencing it in real time. The ICCA is done in three stages, with the championship culminating in New York City. Every performance could be their last, which adds another layer of anxiety for the performers. Many of them are seniors and on the precipice of beginning the nebulous journey that is the rest of their lives.
It’s not just the championship title that’s at stake for these competitors. What Just Sing balances extraordinarily well is the personal stories of the team. The 2023 team is the most diverse group ever assembled, and they wanted that to be reflected in their song selection. They open with a medley from Rosalia, then go to Bob Dylan’s “The Times They are a’Changin’” before ending with Beyoncé’s “Cuff It.” It’s a reflection of their personal favorite musicians, as well as a hope for the future. Their performance of Dylan’s classic is especially charged, given the members of the group. They take the time during rehearsal to explain what the lyrics of the song mean to them, and it’s a moment when the audience remembers that, all things considered, they’re still just kids who are hopeful, scared, and frustrated with the state of the world. Singing might not change things overnight, but art does have the capacity to make a difference in the long run. You just have to keep singing.
courtesy of Tribeca
Just Sing has all the trappings of a sports documentary, and we should consider a capella singers to be more athletic than a lot of people give them credit for. A select few performers are singled out for a more indepth story about the road that led them there, and the number they choose is a sweet spot. Enough to round out the world of the SoCal VoCals, but not too many that the documentary loses its greater focus on their journey to the championships. Just Sing captures the highs and lows of life through the lens of these kids who love to sing. In a way, more is at stake for them than collegiate athletes. A lot of sports have a direct path to a professional league after college. Singers do not. Becoming a full-time professional singer requires talent, hard work, and more than a bit of luck. For the SoCal VoCals and their fellow a capella groups, this could be it. As the director of the ICCA says about the finals, “You get to be Cinderella for the night and then you have to grow up.” Just Sing does a masterful job of capturing this end as well as the unknown beginning that’s around the corner.
“It happened once and it was perfect.” Even though their 2023 season has been recorded for posterity in this documentary, their experience of it will always be different from the one we’re seeing. Even if we cry or laugh, there’s something special about being in the room and being part of something. At the risk of outing myself as an ex-Gleek, it’s like Rachel Berry once said, "Being a part of something special does not make you special. Something is special because you are a part of it." Just Sing is something special, not because of what this group of people is trying to achieve, but because this particular group of people found each other and chose to pursue something bigger than themselves.
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