The Music Beat: UVA’s Hullabahoos hit the right note – and win big

Peter Mildrew initially thought the email in his inbox offering up to $75,000 was a scam.

As the then-president of the Hullabahoos, an all-male a cappella group at the University of Virginia, he was used to fielding gig requests paying far less. When a publicist working for Reser’s Fine Foods, a ready-made food company, reached out about a jingle-writing contest for college a cappella groups, Mildrew was skeptical.

But $25,000 in prize money for first place, plus $20,000 to cover travel expenses for a performance in Oregon, was too good for the Hullabahoos not to enter. Even the second-, third- and fourth-place prizes ($15,000, $10,000 and $5,000, respectively) were nothing to sneeze at.

“I was like, ‘This is real. This is something that we have to do,’” Mildrew, a rising fourth-year student, recalled. 

It was a good call. In June, the Hullabahoos took first place in Reser’s jingle contest, earning prize money they plan to put toward concerts and recording projects.

Finishing before finals

Once he realized the contest was legit, Mildrew texted other members of the group’s executive board, including former president and Class of 2025 graduate Nick Chu. There was almost unanimous agreement: They needed to start working on an entry almost immediately.

Rising third-year student Teddy Price teamed up with Chu to write the jingle. They met in Chu’s Lawn room and started brainstorming ideas as Chu plunked out a melody on his keyboard.

“It was this really fun, kind of goofy-sounding thing that just stuck,” Price said. “We just started listing a bunch of food, and it came together pretty quickly.”

Price worked with his fellow Hullabahoo, Carson Barnes, to translate the song from keys to an a cappella arrangement.

It was lucky their draft came together so quickly. The contest deadline was in the middle of final exams.

“We couldn’t flake off on it,” said Nick Scheper, the current Hullabahoos president and a rising third-year student in the School of Architecture. “We’re really lucky we were able to refine it.”

In the studio

Once the jingle was finalized, the Hullabahoos stepped into the studio at Charlottesville’s Music Resource Center to record it. The other winning entries recorded videos of live performances of their songs.

“Performing live and recording in the studio are two different ballgames, but because we had read through the stipulations and the criteria, we knew Reser’s wanted something that was polished and fine-tuned to the point where they could use it for their brand,” Mildrew said.

The Hullabahoos contacted former University Communications video producer Julia Weaver, who previously produced a music video for the group, for help with the video. She assisted with the opening shot, which they got in two takes. From there, the group flew solo. They only roughly choreographed the rest of their video.

“Somehow, some way, we locked in. When we sing ‘easy,’ it somehow looked very symmetrical and planned the way we all pointed,” Mildrew said.

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The Reser’s jingle is a departure from the group’s typical sound, which usually features covers of pop musicians like Shawn Mendes and Nick Jonas. That was part of the fun, the Hullabahoos said.

“The barbershop (quartet) kind of vibe we brought to the Reser’s jingle is not something we ever do, so it was super interesting to see how the group reacted to that music. It was so new to us we didn’t take it that seriously, so all the smiles on our faces are because we thought it was funny,” Scheper said.

The waiting game

Mildrew edited the video and submitted it to Reser’s. After a few weeks of waiting, he got an email: The folks at Reser’s had “fun news” for them, but the email still felt cryptic.

“I read it over a bunch of times. I even put it into a chatbot, and asked ‘What does this email mean? Did we win?’ It said we had a 95 to 98% chance of winning,” Mildrew said.

The chatbot was right. On a Zoom call days later, the Hullabahoos learned they had officially won first place, edging groups from the University of Illinois, Dartmouth College and Northeastern University.

“We all just kind of yelled,” Price said. “My family was eating dinner across the room, and they started yelling, too. It was just amazing vibes all around.”

With their winnings, the Hullabahoos will travel to Beaverton, Oregon, for a performance, and will be able to pay for future studio time and group trips.

“This is going to go in the annals of Hullabahoos history,” Mildrew said.

Media Contact

Alice Berry

University News Associate Office of University Communications