UCLA Hill’s Got Talent showcases wide range of student acts

The first annual UCLA Hill’s Got Talent put on this past Friday by various councils in the residence halls showcased a variety of talents. From singing acts to magic acts, Bruins performed in the Northwest Campus Auditorium. Every major from psychology to pre-med got on stage to share their hidden abilities.

TRANSCRIPT:

Hahn: This past Friday was the first annual UCLA Hill’s Got Talent, a talent show put on by the President’s Council, On-Campus Housing Council and National Residence Hall Honorary. UCLA students from every residence hall got the chance to show off their talents – everything from singing and spoken word to dancing and magic. With a packed house, many of these Bruins performed for the first time to a crowd of about 100 people. The talents showcased Friday night were picked from two preliminary rounds. Dr. Josh O’Connor, the Leadership Development Coordinator for Residential Life and a judge for the earlier rounds, spoke highly of the performances he saw.

O’Connor: There are many students on the Hill that have extreme talent. One of the acts that stuck out for me was a magic act; he had incredible magic.

Hahn: Setting the stage for the night, third-year psychology student Sonachi Agina performed a spoken word about race.

Although she appeared happy and smiling throughout the interview, her performance allowed Agina to show off a more serious side.

Agina: Well there was just a time period when I started writing poems, it was probably the summer right before college and it is kind of different, it’s not singing and it’s not dancing, it’s just talking. This is my first time, I’ve never really performed this ever, I’ve just wrote poems for fun during the summer when I was going through some things.

Hahn: As in many talent shows, there were various musical performers, however, the ones from last Friday night  were unique. Another finalist was, Shana Bergal, a first-year undeclared life science student. She did a collaboration of classic hits such as “Bohemian Rhapsody” and various Beatles songs.

Hahn: This is not something you would hear in a life science class.  Another popular category was singing, which first-year undeclared humanities student Paavni Trateja demonstrated as her talent.

Although the song Trateja sang was described as a mash-up of two songs, the performance added an element of drama.

Hahn: Something sounded off. Everyone noticed. It looked as though she was very nervous – but the audience simply cheered her on. Then, she went on to sing “House of the Rising Sun.”

In the end, many people in the audience realized it was a drama act and a singing performance. As much talent as there was at the show, Bruins were also behind the scenes planning this big event. Here is Raj Randhawa, a second-year undeclared student, one of the primary programmers for this event.

Randhawa: This event, we began planning this really around the beginning of winter quarter and so it’s been about a quarter and a half, and the idea kind of came from three councils. Each council was going to do a talent show and coincidentally we were all doing it around the same time and decided to combine forces.

Hahn: This program was set up completely by Bruins, with only minimal guidance by supervisors. Whether it was on stage, behind the stage or in the audience, this event helped show the hidden talents in every Bruin. For Daily Bruin Radio, this is Chang Hahn.