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Soul2Soul sings their way to semifinals

Lauren Kammerling, For The Miami Student

Soul2Soul, one of Miami University's all-male a cappella groups, will compete in the semifinals of the International Championship of Collegiate A Cappella (ICCA) this Saturday, following their first-place win at the quarterfinal round in February.

The quarterfinals took place at Centerville High School and pitted Soul2Soul agains nine other college a cappella groups from around the region.

In addition to a first-place finish, the group took home three other awards. Music Director Justin McKay received an individual award for outstanding arrangement of "Hey Ya" by Outkast, Business Director Cameron Holland took home Outstanding Soloist and the entire group took home the award for outstanding choreography for their set.

Soul2Soul President Kyle Motts said he could not be more proud of how the first round went for the group and for all of the individual recognition members of the group received.

"It was great to see the other guys in the group get recognized for their talents," Motts said. "They worked so hard and it was great to see that with us all up there together."

While not an official award that night, Soul2Soul vocal percussionist A.J. Searle won an audience-voted vocal percussion battle against the beatboxers from the other groups, helping Soul2Soul dominate the quarterfinal competition.

When asked about the win, Searle said it, "set off a real emotional high because right after that we started winning all the awards and I just went into a little bit of shock."

This first place finish will now send the group to the University of Michigan this Saturday to compete against the nine other groups for the Great Lakes region that placed first or second in their quarterfinal round.

If Soul2Soul takes home first place against the nine other groups at semifinals, they will move on to the finals in New York City.

Soul2Soul is the re-branded group formerly known on campus as The Remnants. The new name comes from a classic Remnants song called "Good Old A Cappella (Soul To Soul)" that the group felt represented the group's spirit as well as their old name.

"We wanted to keep it about being friends first and singers second," Motts said.

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This semester, the group will spend their spring break recording an album.

Check out @Soul2SoulMU on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.