The Music is Medicine chapter at the University of Oklahoma is holding a Lip Sync Battle in the Meacham Auditorium at 7:00 p.m. on April 13^th, 2017. This is the second annual lip sync battle, and it is the organization’s favorite fundraiser to acquire the means to help relieve patients’ suffering. Lip Sync Battles were an idea that sprang up during Late Nights with Jimmy Fallon in 2014, and Music is Medicine was inspired to use that idea to help patients.

A year ago, I auditioned to be in a lip sync battle because I wanted to out-dork myself for charity and compete for a first-place prize of $300. Fortunately, I DID ALL OF THAT AND MORE.

I did not realize at the time how much it would change my perspective. At first glance, a lip sync battle may seem like poor imitations of songs. However, lip syncing let’s a person use the same voice and the same song and make it something both they and their audience can relate to with the same nostalgia. It’s great to see our own self-written productions, but we can’t help but appreciate those old songs that have that nostalgia lingering like an overeager waiter waiting to take our order.

So, I auditioned with "Show Me How You Burlesque" by Christina Aguilera. My mischievous twist was dancing the opposite way in which the song implies. Instead, I did dance moves like the “worm,” the “Carlton” made famous by "Fresh Prince of Bel-Air," the Moonwalk, and I froze in a unique headstand for approximately 10 seconds. In other words, nothing about my dancing contained the sex appeal that Christina Aguilera portrayed in her performance of this piece. In fact, the word "Burlesque" means to be completely absurd, so I was completely absurd. I did not think that I would win, but the crowd cheered loudly and the judges voted proudly like what I did made a difference…

And it did make a difference. Not only did I magically earn the most money in the least amount of time ever in my life, but it also became a reason for people to remember the event and help establish the organization’s pattern for it in the future. Sometimes we forget that when we pay to watch performances, our money always goes towards some end. The money that people paid to get tickets went to helping suffering patients by Music is Medicine. That money boosted the morale of patients as well as the organization to keep doing charity for others.

Music is Medicine is a nonprofit organization that uses music as therapy to help hospitalized patients improve their health emotionally. It’s easy for a suffering patient to lose their morale when they are stuck in a hospital room that could potentially feel like a jail cell. Music is capable of making anyone feel any kind of emotion regardless of where they are. Using music as medicine helps boost the morale of patients who otherwise have difficulty doing so for themselves.

Yet this organization’s Lip Sync Battle made an important impression on me because it also empowered me as a patient. I suffer from a physical chronic illness that makes me feel less empowered due to its disabling effects. I know that music can be medicine because it has been my personal medicine for my own morale. Being able to perform for charity empowered both me and the charity. Yet in the end, we all suffer due to deteriorating physical health; there is not one person that does not need to go to the doctor and be treated at some point in their life. It’s important for us to remember that we need other people, and other people need us. Charity events like Lip Sync Battles unite us all with the music that reminds us that we all feel the same emotions and need the same morale and support. Music is Medicine’s Lip Sync Battle empowers performers and patients, creating a community of empathy.

The Facebook event for the OU Lip Sync Battle link is here: https://www.facebook.com/events/145225249339988/

Support your community, and do it with nostalgia!