Despite the rumors and hype, Garden Level did not audition for “America’s Got Talent” last Sunday.
At least, not seriously. Although the 11 members of the men’s a cappella group did perform a 90-second snippet for the “America’s Got Talent” judges, Garden Level did not consider it an audition.
Instead, it was an opportunity to get some feedback. They never actually considered being on the show.
The hype about the so-called audition was spurred by an article released by the Puget Sound Media Relations last week that publicized the group’s intention to try out for the show. However, Garden Level never intended to make it such a big deal among the students.
“We were invited by the producers of the show and thought, ‘why not try?’” member Patrick Schneider said. Although there is a one million dollar prize for the winner, it didn’t serve as much incentive for the group.
“We did not want to do it for the money. Even if we were to make it past the first round, we would have declined to go back because we are full-time students. School is our number one priority,” member Francis Reynolds said. “We auditioned because it was something different to do and we wanted to get some feedback from the judges.”
Other universities’ a cappella groups, such as the University of Oregon’s On the Rocks, competed in the Sing-Off, which aired in December of 2010. However, Garden Level is not trying to professionalize or publicize itself in that way.
“We don’t want to make a big deal about our audition. We just did it for fun,” member Kyle Long said.
The group emphasized that it was just an experience and that it would have been silly not to try since they were invited.
The men went to the Tacoma Convention Center on Sunday afternoon and sang multiple songs for the judges. In addition to singing, they were able to meet some of the other contestants.
“It was a new experience for us. We sang our songs well and got positive feedback which is what we were looking for,” Reynolds said.
As of now, Garden Level is waiting to hear to see if they will receive a call back to the next level of the competition which would take place in Seattle on March 2.