By Alex Edel

Rachelle Song ’10 made it to the top seven finalists for a Japanese karaoke competition run by the Cheng and Tsui Company.

Each competitor had to sing a Japanese pop song, film it and post it on YouTube. The top contestants could win a Nintendo Wii and iPod nano. Any teacher or student enrolled in Japanese could enter the contest. The Japanese song could be of any genre but could not contain any profanity.

Song has been taking Japanese for two years and her teacher Julie Dair recommended that she enter this competition. As part of the Japanese curriculum each student must complete one project per semester doing anything that has to do with Japanese. Dair thought this was a great opportunity to complete the project.

Song sang “BoA No. 1” by the Japanese artist Boa, and every contestant posted a comment with the video. She wrote, “Hey you guys this is my first time singing a Japanese song. I thought I would use an actual karaoke booth for fun and the mike. I’m in my second year of learning Japanese, and I hope this video shows how much I’ve improved throughout two years.”

The video is accessible through YouTube or Cheng and Tsui’s website.

During the second round the public votes and whoever gets the most votes wins. She said, “Unfortunately, I did not win but it was still a great experience.”