By Linus Chun
The crowd seemed momentarily confused as one lone freshman stepped up onto the stage in the PAC. He walked with a sort of confidence that is unexpected for a ninth-grader. But when the song started playing (Meghan Trainor’s “All about that Bass”), it was immediately clear what his goal was: Louie Figliulo was taking it upon himself to represent his grade in the LREI Spirit Week Lip Sync, one of the most prestigious traditions in the school, and there was a lot of stress that went with it.
But representing his class all alone had not been the plan from the outset. Students of all grade levels get more competitive than ever about the lip sync, going above and beyond in order to win it for their grade. The class of 2020 was no exception. “We had a lot of people doing it [at first],” Figliulo said over email, “then they all kind of quit. Either it was because none of their friends were doing it or they didn’t get their song choice.” This became problematic, as normally during the lip sync, a majority or a group within the grade performs. Rarely has there ever been a performance by less than three people. But in this case only two people were left. “It was down to me and Mawena [Tafa],” says Figliulo.
Once the day of the lip sync came, the two freshmen came to an unexpected bump in the road. “The day of the Lip sync, Mawena had an advisory meeting so we couldn’t practice,” Figliulo said. “That would have been our second practice anyway.” With so little practice and so little time, their backs were against the wall. They had to make some sort of adjustment to their plan. If they wanted to have a performance, someone had to step up. “We just decided that I would do it,” Figliulo explains.
On the day of the Lip Sync, most people didn’t know what to think when Figliulo went up on stage alone. “I’ve heard rumors of this happening beforehand, but I never thought it would actually happen” said lip sync judge and sophomore Amari Fogle. But even with all the doubt going through his mind, Figliulo went up there with confidence and with spirit that was well received from the crowd. His astonishing performance shocked the crowd, and earned his grade a third place spot. “I think that every year the seniors win, that’s just the way it goes because [they’re] graduating,” he said. “I’m ok with that. The praise I got from everyone was plenty.” This was a defining moment for him, as this was his first year attending the high school. “It felt quite good,” he said. “I expected people to be [complimentary] solely because they had to, but I never really imagined everyone liking it that much.”