Barbershop Week rolls on! This is a group called Zero8.
I like this music in an odd way but I also just like the fact that these people do this. I assume it is almost wholly out of love for performing…at contests like this, if nowhere else. This group, as I understand it, performs from time to time in its native Stockholm and they have a few CDs out.
I'm a little unfamiliar with this sector of the entertainment world but I'm guessing the fifty or so people in a group like this do it in their respective spare times. It no doubt requires a lot of rehearsal and I wonder about the finances. Do the singers themselves have to come up with the funds to buy the costumes and to transport themselves to, in this case, Las Vegas?
This is not the kind of Show Biz someone gets into because he's seeking personal glory and fortune. Even the fans of the group probably don't know who most of these guys are.
A few years ago when I first started posting videos from these competitions, I got an e-mail from someone who was involved in one of them. They wanted to know if I was interested in being a judge at their next convention/contest. I gave them an immediate "No thanks" because I was dealing with my mother's final days and didn't pause to ask myself if I really wanted to do that. If I'm ever asked again, I'll have to decide. On the one hand, I enjoy this music and I wouldn't mind learning more about this world…
On the other, I enjoy it listening to one or two videos at a time. I'm not sure how it would be to hear dozens upon dozens, back to back. One of the funniest half-hours of television I ever saw was an episode of Car 54, Where Are You? in which comedian Jan Murray has to judge a Barbershop Quartet contest and after hearing way too much of it, went crazy and had to be hospitalized. You can watch the entire episode here. Do I want to risk that happening to delicate li'l me?
While you ponder that, here's Zero8 improving on Billy Joel and Elvis…