An Evening of Music

Unplugged is an acoustic concert that students take as an opportunity to sing either as a soloist or as part of a group with friends, in a more intimate and casual setting. The most recent concert, Unplugged XV, was held on Thursday 12 April 2018. The event was organised by a group of Year 12 students: Liela Alsugair, Sakina Jamal, Luke Wilson, Reem Traboulssi, Nadeem Ben Khadra, James Barnes and Alison Ross. Additionally, Yousif Abu Hamad, Ben Brandreth, Raul Vlajic and Palesa Riede operated sound on the night. Auditions for the concert were held after school over the course of two days to decide which performances made it to the concert. The group of Year 12s selected those who showed great expression, confidence and musical interest within their performance, resulting in a variety of diverse and impressive performances on the night. The Year 12s managed to raise a total of BD 247 from this Unplugged which will be given to the sponsored charity “Save Our Strays”, a non-profit, volunteer animal rescue organization dedicated to rescuing strays and animals in danger of abuse or neglect. Unplugged XV featured talented performers all the way through from Years 7 to 12 and a whole number of covers of artists including Vance Joy, The Script, Cyndi Lauper and Bruno Mars, as well as an original song. Adding onto the initial features of Unplugged, a new addition was an introduction given by the Year 12 hosts. In addition, each performer gave a brief introduction to the audience before their performance, saying their names and an explanation of why they chose their song. Coincidentally, as Unplugged occurred on the same day as Liela’s birthday, the performers and hosts decided to surprise her and sing “Happy Birthday” to end the night. This made Unplugged XV a unique, entertaining and memorable event which turned out to be a complete success. – Sakina Jamal & Liela Alsugair