f you see a guy dressed like a heart singing at the front of your lecture hall instead of your professor at the podium, don’t worry-you’re in the right place. It’s only the Phi Mu Alpha Sinfonia delivering its singing valentines.
In honor of Valentine’s Day each year, the fraternity holds a fundraiser selling “singing valentines.” For seven dollars, anyone can request that a valentine be delivered to another person. The guys will come to that class and serenade the designated person with their a cappella music right in the middle of class. In front of everyone.
“It’s a big tradition with the frat,” Lucas Perez, junior, said. “Besides being lovable and beautiful it’s funny and embarrassing.”
“It’s literally been going on so long that none of us know when it started,” Jonathan Cofino, junior, said.
The performers said that professors generally don’t mind the singers interrupting their classes.
“Sometimes [professors mind] when they are giving a test or when there is a presentation,” Cofino said. “More often than not, it’s cool.”
Anyone can join the men’s music fraternity, regardless of their major or what school they are in. The 18 men who switch off singing the valentines range from civil engineering to sports administration majors.
A couple of the fraternity members displayed their talents for The Hurricane, singing “In the Still of the Night” a cappella, complete with finger snapping and down on one knee.
On Valentine’s Day, the singers will be delivering a special valentine to President Shalala, who celebrates her birthday that day.
“It’s our birthday gift to her,” Perez said.
But it’s up to the receiver to decide whether they’re swept off their feet or they want to bury their head in the ground.
“Also during singing we have someone wearing a big life-size heart,” he said. “Cox lecture hall is amazing because it’s so many people it’s really embarrassing. It’s difficult to get the heart down the aisle.”
Megha Garg can be contacted at m.garg2@umiami.edu.