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Singing students are full of glee after winning a national competition.

The Sussex Competition Show Choir battled it out against nine other university choirs to win this year’s Masters of Show Choir competition in London on 18 March.

Formed from members of the University’s Sussex Show Choir, the performers sang a medley of songs by Sia, followed by All of Me by John Legend, and then a mash-up of Gold Digger by Kanye West, No Diggity by Blackstreet and Flowers by Sweet Female Attitude on stage at the Arts Theatre in London.

The competition, inspired by college choir TV drama Glee and the film series Pitch Perfect, has run since 2012. This is the second time Sussex has emerged victorious - having also won in 2014.

Second-year geography student Megan Youngs, who became the choir’s musical director this year, said: “We wanted to show the audience what we could do, so we chose very different songs with different timings and key changes, which showed off the choir's broad range and ability.

“The mash-up involved a bit of rapping, which the judges loved, and we all came together and had a boogie on the stage rather than set choreography. It was the last performance of the competition, so we wanted it to be a fun set.”

Their lively performance won the hearts of the judges – Jamie Lambert of Britain’s Got Talent-winning musical theatre ensemble Collabro, Grange Hill actor Jacqueline Boatswain, and actor Joey Parsad – with hot favourites from the University of Swansea being runners-up.

“We worked so hard for this,” added Megan. “We held auditions last October and since then the competition choir has been rehearsing for six hours a week, with most of the choreography being done by Cherie Nyota.”

To help pay for their trip to London and to buy costumes, the choir ran cakes sales and held a quiz night.

A share of the money they raised will go to Partridge House Care Home for dementia patients in Bevendean, Brighton, where the choir plans to perform later this year.

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