Pentatonix Tour Overview
Pentatonix (abbreviated PTX) is an American a cappella group from Arlington, Texas, consisting of vocalists Scott Hoying, Mitch Grassi, Kirstin Maldonado, Matt Sallee, and Kevin Olusola. Characterized by their pop-style arrangements with vocal harmonies, basslines, riffing, percussion, and beatboxing, they produce cover versions of modern pop works or Christmas songs, sometimes in the form of medleys, along with original material. Pentatonix was formed in 2011 and subsequently won the third season of NBC's The Sing-Off, receiving $200,000 and a recording contract with Sony Music. When Sony's Epic Records dropped the group after The Sing-Off, the group formed its YouTube channel, distributing its music through Madison Gate Records, a label owned by Sony Pictures. Their YouTube channel currently has 20 million subscribers and 6 billion views. The group's video tribute to Daft Punk has over 365 million views as of December 29, 2022.
Their debut EP PTX, Volume 1 was released in 2012, followed by their holiday release PTXmas the same year, with Pentatonix's third release, PTX, Vol. II, debuting at number 1 on Billboard's Independent Albums chart and number 10 on the Billboard 200 in 2013. In May 2014, Pentatonix signed with RCA Records, a "flagship" label of Sony Music Entertainment, while in the same year, the group released their fourth EP, PTX, Vol. III, and two full-length studio albums; PTX, Vols. 1 & 2, a compilation album released in Japan, Korea and Australia, and their second holiday release, That's Christmas to Me, with the album certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), platinum on December 24, 2014, and double platinum on February 11, 2016, becoming the highest-charting holiday album by a group since 1962, and the fourth-best-selling album in the United States in 2014. The following year, Pentatonix released their eponymous album, their first consisting mostly of original material, which debuted atop the US Billboard 200 chart for the first time in their career, followed by a third Christmas album, A Pentatonix Christmas, in 2016, and a new EP, PTX, Vol. IV – Classics, the year after.
About Pentatonix
Pentatonix began with Kirstin Maldonado (born May 16, 1992), Mitch Grassi (born July 24, 1992), and Scott Hoying (born September 17, 1991) who grew up together and were schoolmates at Martin High School in Arlington, Texas. For a local radio show competition to meet the cast of Glee, they arranged and submitted a trio version of "Telephone," the hit song by Lady Gaga and featuring Beyoncé. Despite losing the competition, their singing sparked attention at their school, and they began performing. Their version of "Telephone" subsequently gained attention on YouTube.Avi Kaplan's basso profondo vocal range was a prominent element of Pentatonix's sound from the group's founding through his departure in 2017.
Hoying and Maldonado both graduated from Martin High School in 2010, Grassi in 2011. Hoying went off to the University of Southern California (USC) to pursue a degree in popular music performance, while Maldonado pursued a degree in musical theatre at the University of Oklahoma. While at USC, Scott Hoying joined an a cappella group called SoCal VoCals. He found out about The Sing-Off from another member of the group, Ben Bram (also their arranger, producer, and sound engineer), and was encouraged to audition for the show. He persuaded Maldonado and Grassi to join him, but Bram suggested having a bass and beatboxer as well to support the group. Through a mutual friend, Hoying met Avi Kaplan (born April 17, 1989), a highly recognized vocal bass in the a cappella community. Then, the trio found Kevin Olusola (born October 5, 1988) on YouTube, where one of his videos in which he was simultaneously beatboxing and playing the cello (called "celloboxing") had gone viral. Olusola was born in Owensboro, Kentucky, and graduated pre-med from Yale University.
The group met the day before the auditions for the third season of The Sing-Off began. The group successfully auditioned for the show and eventually went on to win the title for 2011.
Pentatonix Facts
- Since there are five band members, they used a musical name to celebrate this fact. The pentatonic scale has five notes per octave.
- In an interview with Bigger than Beyonce, they talked about the hardest parts of using their voices as their only instruments.
- To wake themselves up when they are tired, the group uses champagne and red bull to get amped up before a show. They also eat pita chips, hummus, salsa, and beef jerky when they are on tour.
- In an interview the group did with Entertainment Weekly, they said that many people believe that the two are married. In reality they definitely are not.
