Working professionals and lip-synching collided for the CO+HOOTS Foundation’s third annual Epic Lip Sync Battle on Friday night at the FOUND:RE Hotel.
What began as a celebration of Phoenix councilman and CO+HOOTS board member Daniel Valenzuela’s birthday three years ago became an event that brings the community together to support local entrepreneurship.
The CO+HOOTS Foundation sent proceeds to their Youth Startup Weekend where middle- and high-school students get to experience what it’s like to start a business.
“Regardless of where they live, where they grew up, what they know or don’t know, who their parents are, we want to empower those students,” said Lisa Glenn, the executive director at CO+HOOTS.
Participants got creative with their two-minute-or-less performances. The 10 teams showcased their lip-syncing skills complete with costumes and choreography to the songs of Pitbull, Jennifer Lopez and Milli Vanilli.
The judges — Valenzuela, Councilwoman Kate Gallego, entrepreneur Francine Hardaway and Phoenix Business Journal reporter Hayley Ringle — gave awards to teams for Best Attempt, Best Heckling and overall winner.
Tolleson Union High School District Vice President Devin Del Palacio won and was awarded the “Danny” trophy, named after Valenzuela, for his performance of Bruno Mars’ “That’s What I Like” and Bell Biv Devoe’s “Poison.”
“There’s nothing better than getting a bunch of people who have to be serious 90 percent of the time up doing something totally silly and choosing a winner,” Glenn said.
Through donations, sponsorships and silent auctions, the foundation raised $56,490, almost tripling its $20,000 goal.
As a reward for meeting the goal, Phoenix Vice Mayor Laura Pastor gave a lip-synch performance to Helen Reddy’s “I Am Woman.” Originally, Phoenix Mayor Greg Stanton was set to perform but had a scheduling conflict.
Kirsten Hall, a member of the crowd-favorite Maricopa Small Business Development Center team, thought the event was a good way to bring the community together.
“I think everybody likes to laugh and having people be silly on stage and making people laugh. It brings people together,” Hall said.
Contact the reporter at afuenmay@asu.edu.
