that deep voice thing

in high school, i belonged to an a capella singing group as part of our year level's music program. i was the only boy in a group of eight girls and so by default had the part of singing baritone. so, while the girls were having fun harmonising and layering with their lyrics, i was stuck with repeatedly crooning phrases and words like "dum de dum, "dub dub doo" and even "bom bom boo" in the most deepest voice i can muster. i felt embarrassed from having to sing something that sounded so stupid and nonsensical.

for the end-of-year performance, we settled on singing boyz II men's late 90s classic, end of the road. it was a pretty easy decision considering how popular the song was back then but at the same time a dicey choice for the very same reason. if we didn't hit the song just right, we'd be laughed at and crucified.

several months of hour-long rehearsals and the time had finally come. up on stage, in front of the whole student faculty, we lined up. i'm pretty sure that it was all very obvious to everyone how nervous we all were. sixteen year olds, front and centre for all to see, about to do something most of our peers would have thought completely daggy and lame. i felt particularly anxious seeing that i had no other line for the entire song except for my constant "shoo dup, shoo dups". still, the time had come to suck it up and perform.

aside from a couple of stuff-ups in the beginning, mainly due to nervous tension, we performed pretty well. we were in tune almost the whole time and even my deep voice dub-dub-dubbing worked out nicely. i guess the crowd's applause and wolf-whistles said it all.

after the show, friends of the group came over to congratulate us. they mentioned how nice we all sounded. even our singing teacher heaped his praises. then one boy, a rather cute-looking one, turned to me in front of the group and said rather loudly, "i especially liked how r*yan did that deep thing with his voice. it reminded me of that singer. the black gay one. you know, marvin something..."

"marvin gaye, you mean?," i asked.

"yeah, him." he replied. "but it doesn't matter if he's a poof. he still sounded good. just like you."

oh, if he only knew.