Tech

We went to an a cappella singing competition starring Facebook and Google employees

Melia Robinson

2015-12-10T14:14:00Z

techapella holiday concert a cappella 0311 — Employees of LinkedIn, Airbnb, and Dropbox share the mic at 2015 Techapella Holiday Concert. Melia Robinson

There's nothing like the holiday season to bring people together. That includes the tech elite.

Tuesday, a cappella groups made up of employees from Facebook, Google, Twitter, LinkedIn, Microsoft, Dropbox, Pinterest, and Airbnb united on stage for the third annual Techapella Holiday Concert. The performance, which is free to the public, gives members of Silicon Valley a chance to set aside any industry rivalries and celebrate a common joy.

"We know [singing] isn't part of our job, but it's more or less an extra curricular activity," says Laolee Xiong, a founding member of Facebook's group, The Vocal Network, and an environmental, health, and safety training programs manager. "We're more than software developers and engineers — we love to sing, too."

Tech Insider went backstage at Techapella to see how the event comes together.

When we arrived at the Fox Theater in Redwood City, California, Facebook's group —The Vocal Network — was warming up.

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Their fearless founder, Laolee Xiong (right), conferences with some of the other tech companies' a cappella group leaders on stage.

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Techapella began as a sort of faux a cappella battle. When Xiong left Google for Facebook in 2013, he told his former Google colleagues that if his new gig didn't have its own a cappella group, he would create one.

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Later that year, Facebook's brand new Vocal Network and Google's Googapella, which got its start in 2007, faced off at a winter concert in Menlo Park. Watch a clip below.

"In true holiday-spirit fashion, in the end we came together and sang as one group," Aaron Roan told us. He's the founder of Googapella and a Google program manager.

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"But a lot of people seem to latch on to the friendly rivalry," Roan continues. "We love the idea of bringing together all these companies to show a different side of the tech community — where we all sing together and have fun with each other."

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In 2014, the number of companies participating in Techapella doubled. This year, eight groups took the stage at the concert. (We listed all of their punny names below this photo.)

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Googapella (Google)
InTune (LinkedIn)
Songbirds (Twitter)
The Vocal Network (Facebook)
The Baudboys (Microsoft)
Syncopation (Dropbox)
Airbnbeats (Airbnb)
Pin Tune (Pinterest)

A half hour before doors opened, Xiong and Dropbox's Alex Feldman rallied everyone on stage to rehearse the closing ensemble number, Mariah Carey's "All I Want for Christmas is You."

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A member from each group sang a solo. This LinkedIn employee stole the show.

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The night's emcee Deke Sharon, considered the godfather of modern a cappella, took the stage to give feedback. Sharon arranged the music for the "Pitch Perfect" movies.

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Then the groups dashed to their dressing rooms to get ready. Googapella members wore black and white outfits and accessorized with colors of the Google logo.

Melia Robinson

In true theater kid style, Vocal Network members, dressed in blue, sang "For Good" from the Tony Award-winning musical "Wicked" while they got ready.

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Then members of Dropbox's Syncopation introduced themselves and joined in.

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And of course, there was a lot of checking in on Twitter and Facebook.

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By 8p.m., there was a full house.

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Showtime! Deke Sharon returned to the stage to introduce the first group, Microsoft's The Baudboys, who flew in from Seattle earlier that day.

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"I got up this morning and had meetings, and now I'm doing this!" said one member, who had been with the group for 17 years. The Baudboys launched in 1989.

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The Baudboys had the best, though admittedly "dad-like," dance moves. They choreographed routines for a funk mash-up and "Gonna Make You Happy Tonight," a comedy song about video gaming.

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Next, Sharon welcomed Pinterest's Pin Tune to the stage. The group launched last year.

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They wooed the crowd with a mash-up of "Winter Wonderland" and "Don't Worry Be Happy."

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Twitter's Songbirds started as an email thread among music lovers, and grew to a full-fledged a cappella group that rehearses twice a week during their lunch breaks.

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Strangely, they performed a depressing set, including Sia's "Chandelier" and Coldplay's "Fix You." Sharon joked it was because the Songbirds needed a reprieve from typing cheerful tweets all day.

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The house went wild for Googapella from the moment they hit the stage. In tech's a cappella circle, Google's crew is royalty.

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Possibly the oldest a cappella group in Silicon Valley, Googapella first gained traction on campus when it performed Valentine's Day grams for coworkers. They seem to really like this song.

They upped their performance schedule, and the demand to join skyrocketed. Now Googapella auditions 20 to 30 employees each quarter to fill a couple of available spots.

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Source: San Francisco Chronicle

"Our group spans across all our different orgs in both Google and Alphabet," Roan told us. "We have members from HR, engineering, sales, as well as people working on Chromecast, Gmail, and self-driving cars. We even have someone from our massage team and a teacher."

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They also have an impressive beatboxer on their side. Watch analyst Alex Leu wind up. The crowd went wild!

Dropbox's a cappella group — Syncopation (formerly N*Sync) — delights coworkers on campus by rewriting lyrics to pop songs. Sara Bareilles' "Many the Miles" became "Many the Files."

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They ended with a cutesy duet, "Text Me Merry Christmas." The beatboxer even provided the text notification sounds.

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Just a few months old, Airbnb's Airbnbeats emerged as the dark horse of the evening. They brought incredible energy with Imagine Dragon's "Demons" and Awolnation's "Sail."

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The group cracked jokes throughout the set. "Follow us on Airbnb!" one member said, adding, "Just kidding, that's not a thing."

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LinkedIn's InTune had sound-activated light-up t-shirts.

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James Huang, the group's founder and chief of staff in LinkedIn's accounting department, says a cappella has widened the group's network tremendously. Members meet employees they ordinarily wouldn't interact with at work.

techapella holiday concert a cappella 0264 — James Huang belts a solo in "That's Christmas to Me." Melia Robinson

The Vocal Network brought the house down with a haunting rendition of Fleet Foxes' "White Winter Hymnal." Here's a clip.

Facebook took a bow, but the show wasn't over yet!

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The whole gang united on stage for "All I Want for Christmas is You."

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A member from each group performed a solo, and again, LinkedIn wowed the fans.

"A Silicon Valley tech company a cappella showcase may seem like a strange idea to some," Roan of Googapella says. "All in all we feel like we're part of a big community of a cappella nerds."

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Silicon Valley