For the eleventh consecutive year, the Spanish and Portuguese song Festival occurred at the Neal-Marshall Black Culture Center April 5. Nine participants sang at the event, competing with one another for the top prize of $150. Several guest performers also participated in the event recreationally, such as an IU flamenco dancer and a professional music director who performed a mallet instrumental.
The special guest performers were not involved in the competitive aspects of the evening and were solely present for recreational performance.
Over 50 people attended the event, including friends and family of the performers. Students of the Jacob’s School of Music and the Department of Spanish and Portuguese also attended the event.
For Evie Dickelman, a junior at IU and performer in the festival, her guest visitors helped with her nerves prior to singing in front of the audience.
Evie Dickelman, Junior at IU Bloomington and singer at the festival.
Each of the singers chose the song they would be singing at the event with the requirement that it be in the Spanish or Portuguese languages. To participate in the event, the performers had to undergo an audition process with lecturer at the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at IU, María Montenegro. To make it into the competition, the applicants had to prove their proficiency in the language of Spanish and, or Portuguese and their vocal talent, verifying their ability to perform.
Performers had to meet other requirements such as not being a member in the Jacob’s School of Music in either a minor or major, and first-time participants in the festival. According to Montenegro, the event is important to the Department of Spanish and Portuguese as it is an opportunity to bring awareness to the kinds of events the school has to offer in a diverse medium which the school usually struggles to find.
María Montenegro, Lecturer at the Department of Spanish & Portuguese and event organizer.
A panel of judges consisting of Spanish and Portuguese language experts and musical performance analysts judged the performers based on a criteria of their musical performance, Spanish and Portuguese proficiency, and memorization of the respective songs of each performer.
The top three performers won a cash prize and certificate, with the third place performer winning $50, the second place performer winning $75, and the third place performer winning $150. All performers were awarded with a Spanish or Portuguese course credit.
Members of the audience were also permitted to vote via a QR code in pamphlets available to all attendees for an audience favorite which was revealed along with the announcement of the top performers during an awards ceremony later in the night.
During the awards ceremony, the top three performers won a trophy for their placement, as well as several of the other performers for separate criteria such as complexity of their performance based on the song they chose, or translation and execution of a song from English to Spanish or Portuguese for the sake of the festival.
To apply to perform in the 12th annual Spanish and Portuguese Song Festival, reach out to María Montenegro or Israel Herrera of the Department of Spanish and Portuguese at IU before April of 2025.
