Filled with dancing, music and, of course, some lip action, this year’s homecoming lip sync contest brought in a crowd of students and alumni.

On Friday, Oct. 7, the Black Girl Magic group received first place with The Weather Girls placing second, followed by The Cheetah Gals.

Wendy Roberson, Director of Student Leadership and Activities, and Javier Gutierrez, Assistant Dean of Students and Director of Residential Life, emceed the event, providing entertainment between performances and while the judges were making their decision.

“This activity, it’s become a Hamline homecoming tradition,” Roberson said.

The emcees started out by introducing senior Ethan Mundt, last year’s second place winner, who went on to perform as a special guest.

Mundt lip synced to “Fairy Godmother Song” and “I need a hero” by Jennifer Saunders from the Shrek 2 soundtrack. Dressed in drag, he got the crowd going by dancing down the aisles.

Soon, Roberson and Gutierrez were back on stage to announce not only the rules of the competition but also the newly formed Homecoming Court.

The first group to perform was Out of Sync who performed to NSYNC’s “Dirty Pop.”

Not only did they dance and lip sync, they looked the part as well, dressed in denim to resemble  NSYNC. One of the performers used ramen noodles to make his hair resemble Justin Timberlake’s.

The second group, who also placed in second, were The Weather Girls performing The Weather Girls’ “It’s Raining Men.” Similar to the actual Weather Girls, these performers wore rain coats and used umbrellas as part of their act.

“We just came up with the dance and split up the lyrics and we [were] kinda just wing[ing] it,” junior Khadijah Pierce, member of The Weather Girls group, said. “We practiced like three times this week.”

Too Sexy was the next to perform, lip syncing to Right Said Fred’s “I’m Too Sexy.” Including walking down the imaginary catwalk, Too Sexy also did a fake strip tease by removing his shirt to reveal another one.

Even though Too Sexy didn’t win, he did have some fans in the crowd.

“I was kind of hoping [he] would win,” senior Meagen Hamlin said. “I liked his performance.”

The night’s first place winners, Black Girl Magic, performed Montell Jordan’s “This Is How We Do It.” Dressed all in black, these girls danced in sync.

Coming in third place, The Cheetah Gals, were last to perform. They lip synced to The Cheetah Girls’ “Cinderella” and were dressed in cheetah print.

The three judges, composed of Hamline staff, graded each group on lip sync-ability, authenticity, costumes and props and crowd reaction.

While the judges got together to decide the winners, Gutierrez and Roberson did their own lip sync battle. They each performed two songs.

Gutierrez performed to Salt N Pepa’s “I am the Body Beautiful” and Ricky Martin’s “The Cup of Life.” He even got part of the crowd to stand up and dance along with him.

Roberson’s songs consisted of Tina Turner’s “Rolling on the River” and Missy Elliot’s “Get Ur Freak On.” She had backup dancers that she called the “Green Dot-ettes.” These backup dancers got the crowd riled up as they threw T-shirts into the audience.

They did not actually announce a winner between the two of them.

“I really loved Javier’s performance,” Hamlin said. “I loved how he got the crowd involved, and it was just a lot of fun to watch him up on stage and the crowd interaction.”

The emcees proceeded to announce the Homecoming Royalty. The royalty consisted of senior Jasmine Tappin, senior Law Thao, senior Eric Yeakel, junior Kyra Engen and junior Tijqua Daiker.

The first place winners received $350 with the second place winners receiving $250. Third place received $150.