Pentatonix is sweeping the world with their infectious new sound.
Their Christmas album, That’s Christmas to Me, is the highest-charting Christmas album by a group or duo since 1962.
Meet the unique quintet behind the incredible voices.
1. They’re Named After a 5-Note Music Scale
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Since there are five band members, they used a musical name to celebrate this fact. The pentatonic scale has five notes per octave.
Mitch Grassi, Scott Hoying, Avi Kaplan, Kirstie Maldonado and Kevin Olusola make up the a cappella group, which formed in 2011. They practice every day, sometimes up to eight hours.
Kirstie, the only female member, is the lead singer.
When Asian Fusion asked her what it was like to sing with all men, she answered, “I’ve known Mitch since I was 8 years old. I was friends with Scott since high school so we’re all friends. It’s never really weird unless those times when there’s one dressing room. We’re all like one big family.”
2. They Only Use Their Voices
In an interview with Bigger than Beyonce, they talked about the hardest parts of using their voices as their only instruments.
“The toughest part is arranging, but we’ve gotten so much better at it than we used to be! It’s a fun challenge, though, because we get to brainstorm and come up with different musical ideas,” Grassi said.
They are known to sing cover songs like Lorde’s “Royals,” Fun’s “We Are Young” and Nicki Minaj’s “Starships.”
To date, they have close to 7 million You Tube subscribers.
Watch them sing Daft Punk’s “Get Lucky” above.
3. They Won ‘The Sing Off’
It was Hoying’s decision to audition for the reality show The Sing Off in 2011. He called up his childhood friends, Grassi and Maldonado. They sang in high school as an a cappella trio at Martin High in Arlington, Texas.
They met Kaplan through a mutual friend, and found Olusola on YouTube.
The five won Season 3’s Sing Off crown.
Just 24 hours before their Sing Off appearance, they hadn’t all officially met.
“Coming into this, we didn’t know each other very well, so whenever we would talk to each other about certain things, I think sometimes it wouldn’t make sense to us because we didn’t understand where that person was coming from. Now that we understand each other so well, we understand how to make things work because we know each person’s dynamic and character,” Olusola told EW.
Watch the Britney Spears’ medley they performed on the show, above.
4. Their Christmas Album Features Holiday Classics
That’s Christmas to Me features classics, from “Hark! The Herald Angels Sing” to “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town.”
Here’s the full track list:
1. Hark! The Herald Angels Sing
2. White Winter Hymnal
3. Sleigh Ride
4. Winter Wonderland / Don’t Worry Be Happy
5. That’s Christmas to Me
6. Mary, Did You Know?
7. Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy
8. It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year
9. Santa Claus is Coming to Town
10. Silent Night
11. Let It Go
Watch their rendition of “Silent Night” above.
5. They Will Be in ‘Pitch Perfect 2’
EW revealed that Pentatonix will star as a college a cappella group in the Pitch Perfect sequel.
Their appearance came about because of a friend who was involved in both The Sing Off and the movie.
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Pentatonix: 5 Fast Facts You Need to Know