It has been two years since the last Homecoming Lip Sync, and for this year’s theme, Around the World, organizations prepared a performance that paid homage to the country of their choice. Performances include dancing, acting and skits. Performances are judged on their originality, routine, professionalism and lip syncing. Lip Sync is a highly anticipated event during Homecoming week hosted by the Student Union Board of Governors Major Weekends committee that brings crowds of students, alumni and faculty to watch the UConn community perform.
Gampel Pavilion was packed with eager students. Students, ranging from a large crowd of first-year to fourth-year students, filled up the lower sideline and bleachers on the east side of the arena.
Participating organizations picked a country to represent for the Around the World theme. Christabel Yeboah, seventh-semester English major, was excited to see performers represent their countries.
“I liked learning about new cultures,” said Yeboah.
UConn’s dance team opened the night with an energetic routine. Following the dance team were the performing organizations for the night. Some of the Greek groups that performed included Sigma Phi Epsilon and Alpha Omicron Pi representing Columbia with a mix of popular Latin music. Gamma Phi Beta and Alpha Kappa Lambda partnered together to represent the United Kingdom. Delta Zeta represented Italy alongside another fraternity.
It was no surprise that cultural centers truly showcased their cultures through the choreography, cultural attires, props and lip sync of their performances while representing their chosen countries. The Asian and Asian American Cultural Center (AsACC) represented Japan with dances from UConn SEOULAR, a K-Pop dance group; Husky Bhangra, a South Asian dance team; and UConn Wushu. Husky Bhangra came out with beautiful bright-colored cultural attire and amazed the audience with complex, lively and energetic moves. The three organizations had a few minutes to individually showcase their own talents, and united at the end to fully represent AsACC with a dance routine to a song by K-Pop group Ateez.
The Puerto Rican and Latin American Cultural Center (PRLACC) also came out with an amazing routine full of variety and cultural dances. PRLACC represented the Dominican Republic and illustrated a charming storyline with their script. Sticking to their roots from 2019 when they brought out “Bad Bunny,” PRLACC surprised the audience by having Cardi B join the routine. Not only was this moment memorable, but the student who played Cardi B also executed her iconic gestures perfectly while wearing an iconic bright gold jumpsuit.
Given that UConn hasn’t had a Lip Sync competition since fall 2019, the event was highly anticipated for fourth-year students.
“I really liked watching the dances,” said Sanskriti Pandey, a seventh-semester finance major that participated in team PRLACC as a first-semester student.
Performances ended around 8:15 p.m., and while waiting for the Lip Sync competition results, the Homecoming Parade winners were announced. The first place winners were Brazil (Greek category), Dominican Republic (cultural centers category) and Ireland (fee-funded category).
Shortly after, the judges announced the winner for Lip Sync. In first place for the Greek category was the United States. AsACC took home another trophy for the cultural center category, making it their fourth consecutive year winning against the cultural centers.
“The energy, school spirit and the community bonding! The crowd was wild and it really hyped us up more as we performed. I’m so happy about how everything went,” said Yukin Lin, a seventh-semester linguistic major and Psychology minor student. Lin participated as a voice actor, actor and dancer in AsACC’s performance.
Fiona Liu, a seventh-semester environmental major, shared the same excitement and looked forward to watching AsACC perform last night.
Lin and many in AsACC’s team expressed great excitement after their win.
“[I feel] ecstatic! Everyone is so amazing and I am so grateful for the work that everyone put in, in such a short time. We couldn’t have done it without each other,” said Lin.
Preparation for Lip Sync starts during the summer and can take all semester to plan thoroughly.
“We had less time than we normally do to prepare for this big event, but everyone pulled through and honestly everyone’s hard work and dedication absolutely blew me away,” Lin expressed.
Lip Sync truly is about unity and bringing organizations together to show school spirit. It was amazing to see a great turn out for an event that was a part of UConn’s tradition every year, even after a year of distress.
Homecoming Week is not over just yet! More events, including the Pageant, are coming up later this week along with the fall football game. To view the full schedule, visit homecoming.uconn.edu.
