By Alexandra Valint
Cavalier Daily Associate Editor
The cinema industry may have their glitzy Academy Awards and music may boast about the Grammy Awards but the international a cappella community has the Contemporary A Cappella Recording Awards.
This week the Hullabahoos were awarded Best Male Collegiate Album for their most recent CD, Xerox Nation, beating out fellow nominee and University group, the Academical Village People for their CD, Room Zero, in addition to two other finalists.
The Virginia Belles also made an impressive standing with their latest album Aurora, winning runner-up for Best Female Collegiate Album.
The annual awards are sponsored by the Contemporary A Cappella Society, and are conferred to groups in a number of different categories, including professional doo-wop, barbershop, religious and collegiate.
The University's groups garnered seven CARA nominations and four awards, competing with college groups across the nation who submitted their CDs for consideration.
Scott Meddles, third-year College student and Hullabahoos member, said the whole group was very excited at the news.
"We personally don't do many live competitions," Meddles said, "so this is the only way we have of gaining recognition on a national level."
Meddles said that Xerox Nation, which came out in September of 2001, was a particularly strong album.
"This is the most solid album we have ever put out," he said. "There isn't one song that is significantly weaker than the others."
Tanya Monton, fourth-year College student and Virginia Belles member, said the group was very excited with their award as well. Their previous CD, Bellisima, tied for first runner-up in the same category two years ago.
"We had a really good variety of songs that showed that we just didn't do one kind of music," Monton said. And "we had some really strong arrangements and soloists."
Aurora was the product of hard work and an incredible amount of time, Monton said.
"We spent three or four weeks recording and then we spent an entire week mixing all the songs," she added.
The Academical Village People's Mike Daguiso won Best Male Collegiate Soloist, while Hullabahoos alum Jeff Hall received the runner-up award in the same category.
Monton seemed to sum up the surprised yet modest reaction to the CARA awards. "It's really a honor and it makes us feel good that people outside of U.Va. recognize what we are doing," she said.
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