The vision of the Brigham Young University’s (BYU) co-ed A Capella group, Beyond Measure, is “to be a professional, unified group centered on the teachings of Jesus Christ that inspire all through uplifting music to do good works to become closer to the Savior.” They are living their vision as they continue to create music that is both upbeat and uplifting like their recent cover of Shawn Mendes’ “Stitches.” They posted the video on their YouTube channel on 1 July 2016 and it has already garnered over 1,900 views.
Shawn Mendes, a Canadian singer, recorded the song “Stitches” for his debut studio album, Handwritten, in 2015. The song was initially released to iTunes via Island Records on 16 March 2015 as the third pre-order exclusive track from the album. It was released to radio stations on 5 May 2015 via Republic Records as the album’s third official single. “Stitches” became the first song by Mendes to appear on a Billboard airplay chart. In June 2015, it debuted at number 36 on the Mainstream Top 40 chart and eventually reached number one. It became his first top 10 single on the Billboard Hot 100, charting at number four, and it also reached the top 10 on the Canadian Hot 100, remaining at number ten. The song also topped the UK Singles Chart and German Singles Chart and reached the top 5 in Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. And it was nominated for Choice Music Single: Male Artist at the 2015 Teen Choice Awards. As of July 2016, the “Stitches” YouTube video has been viewed over 540 million times.
The music group Beyond Measure adds some of their flare to the cover of this popular song to make it even more interesting. Their unique signature sound created only with their voices, puts a dynamic spin on this cover, making it uniquely different from many other covers of this same song. The tight harmonies and precise choreography round out the presentation, resulting in a par excellent performance. When Eric Corpuz, founder of the group, commented, “We want to be a force for good in A Capella. We want to show that we’re not just another one of those A Capella groups,” he was not kidding. Beyond Measure is not your every day, run of the mill A Capella group. If this music video is a representation of what we can expect to see and hear from them in the future, then they are destined to take the music industry by storm.
