Posted by Katherine St Asaph on 07/14/2011 at 1:01 PM News

The Popdust Files: sara bareilles, the sing-off

NBC’s The Voice doesn’t just have to compete with American Idol and the much-headlinedThe X-Factor. It also has to compete with itself. Sort of. The Sing-Off, an a cappella competition, will get another launch this fall, and it’s a launch that now includes Sara Bareilles. Her rationale:

A cappella music is very near and dear to my heart, and I have been a huge fan of the show from the beginning. I love the opportunity to be a part of something that celebrates a genre of music that I just adore and believe in. I can’t wait for it to start.

We’re fine with this choice–Bareilles might not be as dynamic as Scherzinger, but she does have a fanbase, and like Boyz II Men and Ben Folds, she’s a bit of an a cappella group staple. (Full disclosure: the author of this piece was part of an a cappella group in high school and sang a few alto notes in “The Luckiest.” The more you know!) Meanwhile, Nicole Scherzinger was in the Pussycat Dolls, which are one of those groups that a cappella groups mainly pull out arrangements of when they want to be all relevant and stuff, and those are either really amazing or really, really bad with many more “really”s.es, joining Ben Folds and Boyz II Men’s Shawn Stockman and replacing Nicole Scherzinger.

Don’t just take our word on this, though–take UCLA’s! Maybe we’ll see a repeat of this Sara Bareilles performance.