By Geoffrey Rowlands


Unaccompanied vocals normally feature in the fields of classical singing or barbershop quartets. Only rarely is the art heard on the pop music scene. This makes the enormous chart success of American a cappella quintet Pentatonix all the more remarkable.
Their self-titled fourth album shot straight to number one on the Billboard 200. As unusual as this may seem for a group performing in their musical genre, their current success should actually come as no great surprise.
The group’s previous album, 2014’s “That’s Christmas to Me,” peaked at number two on the Billboard 200. It was the highest-charting album of Christmas songs by a group since Mitch Miller & The Gang’s “Holiday Sing Along With Mitch” topped the US LP chart in January, 1962.
“We never took anything for granted,” smiled mezzo-soprano Kirstie Maldonado. “All of our previous releases have been cover versions of popular songs. But there is only one cover on the new album. All the other tracks are original songs which we wrote or co-wrote ourselves.”
“We felt we had to start writing our own material in order to progress as a group,” explained countertenor Mitch Grassi. “Only performing covers put us in a kind of comfort zone. We obviously created our own arrangements of each song but we were just putting our own interpretation on other people’s work.”
“There was certainly nothing wrong with this,” added bass Avi Kaplan. “It’s not like a musical group performing a cover and giving so little of themselves to the song. But we felt we needed to write our own songs. The concern was that people who bought our covers albums may not like our original work.”
The group need not have worried. Critical acclaim was followed by soaring sales figures.
“I think our first emotion was relief as much as joy,” admitted vocal percussionist, beatboxer and backing singer Kevin ‘K.O.’ Olusola. “When you do something out of the box, it’s obviously a worry that fans will not enjoy, or even accept, the change.”
The fans have supported Pentatonix since they formed in 2011. They first found fame shortly afterwards on season three of NBC Television’s The Sing-Off winning the competition by means of a public vote.
“It’s amazing to think we only formed one day before the first auditions for The Sing-Off,” remarked baritone Scott Hoying. “Kirstie, Mitch and I were schoolfriends in Arlington, Texas. I was at the University of Southern California when the idea came to audition for the show. I contacted Kirstie and Mitch, who were enthusiastic, but the TV people insisted no group could have fewer than four members.
“This meant we needed to find someone else who we could enjoy working with. I’d already met Avi so he was invited to join us and we found Kevin through his fantastic video on YouTube.”
A recording contract with Sony Music’s Epic label formed part of their prize. Although they were quickly dropped by Epic, Pentatonix issued three EPs via Sony’s Madison Gate label. Each release sold well and increasing interest in their work saw them sign to major label RCA Records in 2014.
“The occasional a cappella song or album has made an impression on the charts,” Mitch stated. “But we were getting consistent chart success and building a loyal following.”
“We made full use of social media to promote our work,” Kirstie added. “I think our YouTube page is the 13th-most-subscribed-to music channel which is really incredible considering the type of songs we perform.”
With YouTube, Shorty and Streamy Awards already to their name, this year saw Pentatonix deservedly win the Best Arrangement, Instrumental or A Cappella, Grammy for their “Daft Punk” medley. The video has so far attracted more than 162 million views.
“Winning the Grammy was so special,” Kevin revealed. “A lot of people still can’t believe all the music was created by our voices. In a way, it’s gratifying that there is this sense of disbelief. It means we’ve hopefully done as good a job as possible.”

IN BRIEF
Panic! At The Disco

Panic! At The Disco used to be a Las Vegas-based rock quartet. The band was formed in 2004 by childhood friends Brendon Urie, Ryan Ross, Spencer Smith and Brent Wilson. After various defections and personnel changes, Brendon is now the only permanent member.
A singer and multi-instrumentalist, Brendon has the ability to play pretty much any instrument he might require for studio recordings. He will use touring musicians during concert performances to promote Panic! At The Disco’s forthcoming fifth album, “Death of a Bachelor,” which is set for release on January 15.
Three promotional singles have already been issued. Videos for Hallelujah, Victorious and Emperor’s New Clothes can all be accessed from www.youtube.com/user/PANICatthedisco
Many more of the band’s earlier videos are also posted here.

Adele

Justin Bieber broke his own record for opening week streaming on the UK market. His new single, Sorry, amassed 4.48 million streams smashing his previous mark of 3.87 million which was set just a few weeks ago with What Do You Mean?
Unfortunately for Justin, Sorry had competition from Adele’s comeback single, Hello. Despite setting what would otherwise have been a new benchmark for first week streaming, Justin’s total was nowhere near the remarkable tally of 7.32 million streams registered by Hello.
Adele’s total sales figures of 333,000 for Hello were more than treble Justin’s numbers with Sorry. It is the biggest-selling opening week UK track since James Arthur’s X Factor winner’s single, Impossible, in December, 2012.
Surprisingly, Hello is just Adele’s second UK chart-topper. Her previous number one was Someone Like You in 2011. She has, however, recorded four more top ten singles including three tracks, Chasing Pavements, Rolling In The Deep and Skyfall, which all peaked at number two.
In America, Hello has become Adele’s fourth number one on the Billboard Hot 100. It was also the first single to sell more than one million digital copies in a week. The total of 1,112,000 almost doubled the previous record of 636,000 downloads set by Flo Rida’s Right Round in 2009.
The video for Hello has already notched up way over 200 million views. It broke the record for views within 24 hours with the total of 27.7 million far surpassing Taylor Swift’s previous mark of 20.1 million for Bad Blood. It also set a new record for the shortest time to accumulate 100 million views beating Miley Cyrus with her video for Wrecking Ball. For anyone who has yet to see the video, it can be found at www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQHsXMglC9A

Ellie Goulding

Ellie Goulding is the latest artist to perform an American Express Unstaged concert. Her show at New York’s Hammerstein Ballroom will be directed by actress Scarlett Johansson and live streamed world-wide at www.amexunstaged.com/elliegoulding
Access to more performances and behind-the-scenes videos from artists who have previously been part of the American Express Unstaged concert series can also be gained via links from this website.
Ellie’s performance is scheduled for 8 PM EST on November 11, the early hours of the morning on November 12 in Qatar. But the entire concert will be continually rebroadcast for the following 24 hours so you should be able to find a convenient time to watch.
In addition to some old favourites, Ellie will be performing songs from “Delirium,” her newly released third LP. The video for On My Mind, lead single from the album, is posted at www.youtube.com/watch?v=H202k7KfZL0

SUCCESS: Pentatonix’s self-titled fourth album shot straight to number one on the Billboard 200.