Cadenza, St. Thomas’ female acapella group, performed their annual winter concert on Dec. 10 in Woulfe Alumni Hall, singing their way through a set list of old and new pop songs and a few holiday tunes. But the highlight was their final song, a collaboration between the Summit Singers and sophomore Wako Wako to “Where is the Love” by the Black Eyed Peas.

The idea sprouted months ago when the Cadenza members voted on which songs they wanted to perform this year. They were excited about the possibility of “Where is the Love,” but hesitant about how to approach it.

“Everyone was wondering how are we going to do ‘Where is the Love’ with an all female acapella group, with everything that’s going on in the world, and do the song justice,” Cadenza president Hannah Tilstra said.

After a lot of brainstorming, Tilstra brought up the idea of including the Summit Singers, adding instrumentalists and bringing in a rapper. Sophomore Rachel Hickman embraced the concept and took charge, arranging the music for acapela voices and recruiting students to help in different parts of the song.

“I was really passionate about it because it’s a song that everyone loves, but they forget that the song stems from a place that means so much more to the people who can relate to it,” Hickman said.

Through a mutual friend, Cadenza found sophomore Wako Wako to perform the rapping part of the song. Wako has done a few rap performances in the past, and was more than willing to collaborate with the two acapella groups.

“Since I started here at St. Thomas I’ve been to almost all their performances, so I knew they were great,” Wako said. “And to be able to perform with them was like, ‘sign me up.’”

Once the group was assembled – two acapella groups, a rapper, a pianist, violinist and cellist – they were only able to rehearse the song once all together before the show.

“Putting it together wasn’t as difficult as we thought because everyone involved was really passionate about the song and the message we were trying to send on campus,” Tilstra said. “Our instrumentalists are so talented. None of them actually had a written part in the music, so they were making everything up as they went.”

The performance went on without a hitch, and the group was met with a rousing standing ovation, an unexpected but exciting ending for the performers.

“It felt good, not for me, but the fact that people actually engaged in the song,” Wako said. “There’s actually meaning behind the song and the fact that people caught on and showed respect for that, I felt really good about that.”

Tilstra agreed that the message of the song was well received and ended the show on the perfect note.

“That was incredible, honestly, and I think ending our concert with that song especially was so refreshing to see everyone reacting that way,” Tilstra said. “We were sending the message that we can be the hope for our generation.”

Mary Brickner can be reached at bric0029@stthomas.edu