Pentatonix They won The Sing Off in 2011. They made a guest starring appearance on America′s Got Talent as non−competitors a couple of years after that. The founding members are:- Scott Hoying (tall blond guy, natural baritone but has an impressive five−to−six octave range, can go all the way up to high tenor and down to bass, sings the bass lines when the usual bass singer takes the lead); Kirstin "Kirstie" (Rhymes with "Thirsty") Maldonado (the only female member, natural mezzo soprano, but can go down to low alto and as high as upper soprano, also can sing in whistle notes that are off the scale); For a time in 2018 between the group’s tours, had the female lead on Broadway in the production of “Kinky Boots”. Mitch Grassi (a true contra−tenor, can hit high notes in his chest voice with ease and go WAY higher in his falsetto, also with ease); Avriel "Avi" Kaplan (dark beard and long hair), true basso profundo, trained as an opera singer, also can go up into the tenor range; and Kevin "KO" Olusola (beatboxer extraordinaire, also is a world−class cellist who plays cello on some of their songs, has a beautiful high tenor voice and gets occasional lead vocal solos as well, graduated pre−med from Yale and speaks several languages including Mandarin Chinese). Kirstie, Scott & Mitch grew up together in Arlington, Texas, and began performing together as children in local youth musical theater. They ended up in high school together and performed in the choir. While there, they formed an a cappella group called The Trio which had several performance videos go viral on RU-vid, most notably a cover of Lady Gaga′s "Telephone". The three of them are best friends and consider themselves to be almost siblings. Scott & Kirstie (who were a class year ahead of Mitch) both graduated high school in 2010 and went their separate ways to different colleges, Scott at USC and Kirstie at Oklahoma. While at USC, Scott joined a USC−based a cappella group called the SoCal VoCals, where he met alumnus Ben Bram, who was now an arranger and vocal coach for the NBC TV show The Sing Off, an a cappella competition show. Ben convinced Scott to get The Trio to audition for the show. The three reunited (Mitch had to skip high school graduation ceremonies to go) in Los Angeles for the audition. They found out that the rules had changed, so they needed at least five members to audition. Ben put them together with Avi (a native of Visalia, California), who he knew from Avi′s performing days at Mount San Antonio College in California. They found Kevin (from Kentucky) through one of his RU-vid videos that had gone viral featuring him playing the cello and beatboxing at the same time, a talent that Kevin coined as "Cello−Boxing". Kevin arrived in Los Angeles literally the day before the audition! Scott came up with the name "Pentatonix" after the pentatonic scale. They performed a re−arrangement of "The Telephone" for the audition and passed, despite having been together as a five−piece group for less that 24 hours! They won The Sing Off that season (all of the performances are available on RU-vid), in which they received a substantial cash prize AND a record contract with Epic Records. They pooled their prize winnings together and all moved to Los Angeles, and all got apartments right next door to each other in the same building. But just a week later, Epic dropped them because the marketing people didn′t think an a cappella group could sell records. Instead of giving up, they were determined and began recording their own songs on RU-vid, hiring Ben Bram as their producer and arranger. These usually consisted of the five of them sitting on a couch and performing cover songs live. Several of the videos went viral, and Sony (the parent company of Epic) decided to give them another chance by placing them on one of their smaller labels, Madison Gate. They released two secular EPs and one Christmas EP on Madison Gate, all of which were strong sellers. But when their cove r of a medley of songs by Daft Punk not only went super−viral, but also won them their first Grammy, they were promoted all the way up to RCA Records, Sony′s top label. They began writing and producing their own songs in addition to their covers, began putting out a Christmas album just about annually (which has become their best−selling genre), and have had multi−platinum album sales, sold−out world tours, and have won two additional Grammys. Avi began getting burned out with all of the touring and heavy recording schedule, was suffering from anxiety and personal problems, and learned that his mother had been diagnosed with cancer in 2017. He announced he was departing from the group and taking some time away from the music industry. Matt Sallee (from Baltimore) joined them in September 2017. He did only become official when they renewed their RCA contract in February 2018, but he recorded with them in September as a featured artist and went on their Christmas tour as a featured artist, as well. When he attended the audition for the group, he had already mastered the Bass part for most if not all their past catalogue. He was successful and has proved that he fits in well with the group. If you think there have been other changes to the line up - look again. This is the ONLY change. Kirstie and Mitch are like chameleons and change looks frequently. After a year away from music, Avi has now returned as a phenomenal solo artist in the Folk/Americana/Roots genre. Ben Bram has been in charge of their production, including arranging and directing from the beginning. He is often referred to as the sixth member. Scott and Kevin are major players in the arrangements, but every member contributes. A good watch is "The Recording of Evergreen" where a camera was invited into the studio for the second week of recording/ Also, all members are songwriters for both Pentatonix and their own solo work. Ed Boyer who mixes everything of theirs (even the HWB Livestream) is the one who pulled Ben Bram into the sing off in the first place. They have Grammy wins for Daft Punk Medley, Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy, and Jolene featuring Dolly Parton. They were nominated for a 4th Grammy for their album Evergreen, but didn't win. Kirstie became a new mum which caused a pause in touring after their Evergreen Christmas tour 2021. Mid March 2023 Kirstie has announced that she is engaged to Ben Hausdorff, their videographer. No dates YET! They have a star on the Hollywood walk of fame installed in February 2023. They are the only a capella group with a star! They came 3rd in the 2023 Masked Singer performing as "California Rolls" being unmasked in May 23. Things you need to know because if you get these wrong Pentaholics will come after you with pitch forks and torches! Ha Ha!! 1- There is NO Auto-Tune; what you hear is actually what they sing. They really are that good. One exception is the 90's Dance Medley where Cher used autotune as an effect - so they had to. 2- What produces everything that you hear in the video, you see in the official video. If there is an instrument used in the music, you see it on screen. In the 2022 Christmas album, there are some instruments not featured throughout the album. 3- They never release something on video they can’t reproduce with the exact same quality live on-stage.
Alan-Freeman gives detailed info about the group. Scott met Mitch when they were 10 years old for "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" and Mitch met Kirstin around age 8. Since their parents had to drive them around and know them well they really are a family. The 4 went to Kevin's wedding and also Matt's wedding in January of 2022. Each has enormous talent and their own side projects but PTX comes first. The Trio have been singing and blending together for 20 years. If you want to see Kevin's arraignment of "O Come All Ye Faithfull" where he puts an African vibe in tribute to his parents. Mitch completed his own alternative style with, "Messer" thanks to the down time over the pandemic. They didn't tour over the pandemic but this overachieving group put out an entire album while most of us baked bread. Scott had to learn the editing process and each of them filmed themselves from home. Their song "Home" has just about every song with the word home in it. If you watch it you get to see each one's home background. Most use green screen to match like they are next to each other when a video shows them in individual boxes. Sometimes they are recording at different times and different studios when they have time. Kevin sings parts in "Away In a Manger"/"Mary Did You Know" and John Lennon's "Imagine" and sneaks in a few lines some times. Scott is growing his individual songs and expanding his career. Welcome to PTX, don't forget your headphones or the Pentaholics will "SCREAM" Have fun and enjoy this talented Band.
@@donnone7295 Kevin had solo lines in "Say Something", and played cello in "Radioactive" and "Shallow". Scott and Kirstie have written original songs that are both quite good: Kirstie's "Be My Eyes", and Scott's emotional and thought provoking "Thank You", written and introduced at the time of the Holidays in the first full year of the Covid pandemic. Another of their originals - when Avi was with the group - is "Run To You". Just great! Nearly every song PTXC covers ends up being a true "Upgrade", as they take a very good, even a great song, and spin their magic to make it exceptional! Any reviewer wishing to cover Pentatonix in full will need to devote at least a full year to the effort given the mind-boggling list of songs they have released!
This is an A cappella group which means no instruments. The tall blond is Scott Hoying - Baritone; the girl is Kirsten Maldonado, Mezzo-Soprano; the guy with the hat is Mitch Grassi, Counter-Tenor; the bearded guy with the turban is Avi Kaplan, Basso-Profundo, and the Beatboxer is Kevin Olusola, who is a Tenor, Cellist, and Cellist Beatboxer. Scott, Kirsten, and Mitch met at a high school in Arlington, TX (between Dallas and Ft. Worth, TX). After graduation they went on to different colleges and majored in music. They got together to compete in a TV singing competition called "Sing-Off" but 5 members were required, so Avi and Kevin came on board from referrals. The area for this video is the California Mojave Desert. Penta is Latin for 5, and tonix is tones, sooo, 5Tones = Penta Tonix, affectionally known as "PTX." That sudden high voice from Mitch the Counter-Tenor, is also affectionally known as "Mitch-slapped"
You guys should check their live performances to this coverage you can see just how little editing goes into their production as you can see them live make all the musical instrument noises, great reaction!
This video was shot in the Mojave Desert in California, USA. Since (as the outro said) they were including Hallelujah on a Christmas album (even though its not a Christmas song, or even religious), they were all dressed in heavy coats, gloves, etc. to simulate the "winter season". But the video was actually filmed in the middle of summer, with temperatures around 100° F (about 38°C)! This is the original lineup of Pentatonix for about the first 6 years of their existence. In 2017, Avi Kaplan, the bass (beanie and beard in this video) left the group for personal reasons (tour schedule, mother's illness, etc.). In late 2017 or early 2018 (depending on exactly how you figure it) Matt Sallee joined the group - he was the bass in Sound of Silence that you reacted to previously. That has been the only change in members in the group's 12 years, although Kirstin and Mitch (round hat, high voice) change their appearances from one video to the next, so much that many reactors think that they are "new members". I would recommend reacting to any of the "Evolution of..." music videos. Those videos are shot all in one take, no cuts, no edits. The members have the bass and beatboxer sitting in front, with the Trio (Mitch, Scott, Kirstin) standing or sitting in back, emulating the original "couch videos" they did when they were first starting out on RU-vid. PTX performs the entire medley about 4 times, picking out the performance they like best to put on RU-vid. In order, they are Evolution of Music, Rihanna, Michael Jackson, Beyoncé, Ariana Grande.
The “man in the floppy hat”, is Mitch. When people react to the surprise of his voice they call it being Mitch-slapped. He and all of them have amazing voices. You should react to Scott and Mitch who form Superfruit join with Brian Justin Crum, Mario Jose and Mary Lambert in a cover of Katy Perry’s Rise
The blond is Scott Hoying The girl is Kirsten Maldanado The bass with the beard is Avi Kaplan The round hat fella is Mitch Grassi And the beatboxer is Kevin Olusola
Kirstie, Mitch, and Scott did attend a high school for the performing arts. When they decided to audition for an a cappella competition called, "Sing Off," they learned they needed to add at least two more: bass and beat boxer to fill out their sound. Most of the other groups were larger, but more predictable college choruses. One of their earliest videos won a Grammy Award and will surprise you even more: "Daft Punk."
LOL! I had to laugh when Gaynor makes a comment about "dusty shoes" because when I watched Office Blokes do a reaction to Pentatonix "Bohemian Rhapsody", Daz was having trouble dealing with them having their feet on the sofa. I thought, "These kids were raised in an immaculately clean home and I highly doubt there was feet on furniture there". Just the way I like it.
And the 3 (Scott, Mitch, Kirstie) also knew a slightly older guy from the same school, Todrick Hall. He wrote and choreographed a medley called "The Wizard Of AHHHS!" and Pentatonix performed it with him and his dog. Check it out. It is a lot of fun.
I absolutely love Aidan’s reaction. You can see in his eyes how focused and into the music he is. That’s what reaction videos are all about! Sharing all emotions together. I love you guys!!! There was no thanks button on this one? Sending love from Turks and Caicos!!! ❤
It was so funny to watch Pentatonix do America's version of Masked Singer, cause like, it was so obviously them. My whole family watches together and when they came on we all basically yelled at the tv, its hard to not guess that the five amazing singers, 4 of whom are obviously men and 1 obviously a girl might be the one super famous group with that exact line up lmfao
The blond guy is called Scot, the man in the beanie is called Avi, the man in the hat is called Mitch. The girl is called Kirsten. And the beatboxer is Kevin. He is an amazing guy and an overachiever.
People are giving a lot of songs to react to. I really believe you should react to their Daft Punk. That will blow your mind. Someone said Gold, and that is amazing. Live performance in front of microphones that is amazing and shows they really are amazing. Then Bohemian Rhapsody. You will be amazed at how good they sound. And finally, AHA! The Star Vista... This is a live performance recorded on a cell phone and is one of the most amazing performances I have ever seen.
Yeah! i wish Office Blokes would do more Pentatonix. Do this version of the song LIVE from their Christmas special.. They sound exactly the same live as they do in the studio. I've been to two of their concerts, so I know what I'm talking about. Office Blokes tended to play their lesser-known songs, which would not get many views. Bummer. PS Listen to PTX with headphones. You miss so much, especially the bass, when you don't.
They are phenomenal and will always amaze. The only difference is Avi the bass has a solo career now that is mind boggling. Look up page for Avi Kaplan when you're ready and any of his many fans can fill you in on background and update you on this beautiful human being. Keep them coming.
Pentatonix did an award winning version of Daft Punk music...I think you would enjoy a whole different side of them. It is a bit older...but it still has 369 million views to date.
PTX members all have such great vocal range! Love them!😊 Well, you're not talking about "Boyz 2 Men". They are a Great RNB group, but all their members are African American. And there is no AJ's in their group, but I think Backstreet Boys does.😊
sorry to burst your bubble but officaial music videos are generally lip synced to the studio recording, you should check out their live performance of this song, it is amazing and also there are places where you can hear it is clearly different to the official studio recording
hey guys, loving us brits. not sure if its been mention, last year, pentatonix, got there own star on the holywood walk of fame i know you will get alot of facts about them, not sure if that has been past on
Please check out Pentatonix's cover of Bohemian Rhapsody, I think you will be pleasantly surprised. And most amazing to me is they did one of the world's most iconic songs with no instruments. Daft Punk cover won them their first of 3 Grammys. Actually you couldn't go wrong with anything they have done. Great reaction as always guys. Peace✌
Actually it really hits strong when you have a 7.1 system in a really good acoustically 'rung in' room. I speak from experience. When you only have two 'speakers' the code has to 'blend' the sound. When the system can break out each sound track into a separate thread it is astonishingly powerful.
Yeah, Mitchell (the high voice) Scott (Blonde tenor) Kirstin (Latina) grew up together in Arlington Texas and did sing in choir at Martin High School. Avi (bass) from California and Kevin (beat boxer) from Kentucky? I forget. Things to note: When Avi and later Matt (his replacement) sings lead, Scott covers the bass line. All of them have a crazy amount of range. Please react to Evolution of Rhianna. They record in a room. No recording enhancements. Just them. Uncut. They do it 3 or 4 times and take the best one. That shows their true talent.
Love you all. The live version can be found at: ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-haFHrfmfHbc.html Many believe the live version to be even better. The trio went to school together, then they brought Avi Kaplan (pronounced Ahh-vee and wearing the beanie) who is a basso profundo and also majored in Opera studies. He is out of this world. After that they found Kevin Olusola on youtube playing the cello and beat boxing. Avi is the bass, Kevin the percussionist. They make up the group's rhythm section. They are such a diverse group. Individually they are musical geniuses and together they sound like angels.
Thank you for reacting to another Pentatonix song. They are amazing. Love everything they sing. Can listen to them over and over. The Prayer and Amazing Grace are really good as well.
You should check out their cover of Gold! It's basically just them sitting in front of microphones and slaying it live! But you have to be familiar with the original song by Kiiara to see how mind blowing their cover is, maybe a double reaction!!!!!
🎧🎧🎧🎧🎧🎧🎧🎧🎧🎧🎧🎧🎧🎧🎧🎧🎧🎧🎧📻🎧🎧🎧🎧🎧🎧🎧 I have never understood how somebody react to music videos without headphones. You just missed half of the song because you weren't wearing headphones. You will hear so many more layers by wearing the headphones. I would suggest that you listen to a Pentatonix Christmas with headphones not only do they sound the same live as they do Studio you will hear the rest of the song. I saw them live last year at the Hollywood Bowl and this year I get to hear them again. This video has about 668M views. The gentleman with the hat Mitch is a countertenor That is higher than a tenor but not falsetto. It is the rarest of the voice types. He does go even higher than that. The acapella group Pentatonix Home Free and voiceplay all need to be heard with headphones on otherwise you are missing layers of sound 🎧🎧🎧🎧🎧🎧🎧🎧🎧🎧🎧🎧🎧🎧🎧🎧🎧🎧🎧🎧🎧🎧🎧🎧🎧🎧🎧
This is THE BEST Acapella group you will ever hear. Loads and loads more songs too find. Men have cried listening too PTX. WOMEN TOO ! Enjoy your PTX journey. You’ll be Pentaholics before you know it. Welcome too the family. 🙏❤️🇬🇧
Love the reaction! Believe you are thinking of the Backstreet Boys. You guys should check out next, their Bohemian Rhapsody and Daft Punk! Tell the guy to wear both headphones with the Bohemian Rhapsody as they have put in the same audio techniques that Queen used originally with the sound going from one ear to the other in a part of it!
The song was originally written by Leonard Cohen and released on his album Various Positions in 1984. His version wasn't well received. In 1994, a more popular version was released by Jeff Buckley. It has been covered several times.
you guys really need to use "Over the ear" headphones (not earpods) to be able to feel the full range and depth of their vocals. They can give you chills and goosebumps when they hit certain harmonies. If you don't use headphones, it will just sound "good" but you won't get the full effect.
The guy with the big hat and the high voice is Mitch Grassi (pronounced Grah'-see, emphasis on the first syllable). Mitch is a contratenor with a range of just over six octaves, and everyone in Pentatonix (except perhaps Mitch) agrees that he's the best singer in the band. We refer to the astonished expression on people's faces when they realize that the beautiful high voice is coming from a man as "being Mitch slapped." You've just been Mitch slapped. Don't let it worry you; it's happened to all of us, generally numerous times, because Mitch is full of surprises. For many pentaholics this song provided us with our very first Mitch slap; therefore it occupies a special place in our hearts, even if it isn't our favorite Pentatonix song. Among my favorites are: • "The Prayer" • "Run To You" (An original, written by Avi and Kevin.) • "Imagine" (Be sure to watch the official video.) • "Bohemian Rhapsody" • "O Come All Ye Faithful"
And now comes the requisite note telling you that right now there are three groups who are considered the cornerstones of the modern acapella musical movement (there are other groups, but these three are the big ones.) First, of course, is Pentatonix, which are exploring. The second group is Home Free. Home Free is all male, and tend to do more country and gospel songs -- though do not think that is an absolute limit because they've done rock songs too. The third group is Voice Play, the so-called "theater kids" of acapella (the go in for sets and costumes and visual effects in their videos). In addition, given that one of their regular members is currently serving in the US Navy, Voice Play has of late included an array of guest singers, many of which Voice Play fans think would make amazing permanent members. You should try all three groups, as they are all amazing, though I should warn you about Geoff Castellucci of Voice Play. The bass singers of both of the other two groups have said he is the lowest voice among them all. Geoff disagrees, but personally I think that Tim Faust of Home Free and Matt Sallee of Pentatonix may well be right.
That thing that happens when you hear the guy with the high tenor voice is called a Mitch-slap (his name is Mitch Grassi) Don’t worry, it happens to everyone. At some point, all the members will do that same thing. Maybe it will be just a short solo or a whole song. You could get Kirstie whipped like I was when I heard her in this song. BTW thou shalt not pause a Kirstie solo, without going back to the beginning. I have spoken.
Enjoy your sincere reactions. Would love to see your reactions to some of their newer stuff like Mad World and New Rules x Are You that Somebody. Mitch, (angel voice) Scott (blond, baritone and bass and so on!) and Kirstie {powerhouse) have known each other since they were @ 9-10 years old. Scott and Mitch were both in a community theater version of Charlie and the Chocolate factory. They were all active in theater and choir. Self described "choir nerds" Can you imagine having the three together in high school as a choir teacher!? Mitch was very shy and bullied for his girly voice. Yeah, how did that work out for you bully boys?
