--- title: Cafeteria Worker Serves Up Amazing Christmas Karaoke Song description: Becky Alderfer surprised the noisy cafeteria with her caroling. canonical: https://time.com/4160981/becky-alderfer-cafeteria-worker-christmas-karaoke/ author: Julia Zorthian article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-12-24T14:48:12.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T08:02:55.809Z og:title: Cafeteria Worker Shocks Students With Amazing Christmas Karaoke Performance og:description: Becky Alderfer surprised the full cafeteria with her caroling og:url: https://time.com/4160981/becky-alderfer-cafeteria-worker-christmas-karaoke/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: TIME og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Cafeteria Worker Shocks Students With Amazing Christmas Karaoke Performance twitter:description: Becky Alderfer surprised the full cafeteria with her caroling twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- # Cafeteria Worker Shocks Students With Amazing Christmas Karaoke Performance > Sponsored content. 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Watch the members break down their "Cheerleader" cover and their original song "Can't Sleep Love"_  by [Julia Zorthian](https://time.com/author/julia-zorthian/)  ## Julia Zorthian Dec 24, 2015 2:48 PM UTC  by [Julia Zorthian](https://time.com/author/julia-zorthian/)  ## Julia Zorthian Dec 24, 2015 2:48 PM UTC A [star was born](http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/Lunch-Lady-Karaoke-Souderton-High-School-Becky-Alderfer-363404991.html) at the Souderton High School Teacher’s Karaoke in Pennsylvania on Tuesday. Becky Alderfer, 52, a cafeteria worker at the school, stepped up to the mic at the lunchtime fundraiser for the school’s United Nations Club. When she belted the first high note of her song choice, _“_Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas,” the chattering cafeteria quieted down and paid attention, NBC reports. “I think it surprised them that the lunch lady started singing,” Alderfer [said](http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/Lunch-Lady-Karaoke-Souderton-High-School-Becky-Alderfer-363404991.html). “I thought \[the song\] had a nice message and I felt like I knew it well enough that I could get through it.” Alderfer’s musical abilities haven’t exactly been untapped; she’s served as the musical director for a church in the area for more than 30 years. Though students may not have known about her singing background, Alderfer’s colleagues were aware and convinced her to take part in the fundraiser. \[[_NBC Philadelphia_](http://www.nbcphiladelphia.com/news/local/Lunch-Lady-Karaoke-Souderton-High-School-Becky-Alderfer-363404991.html)\] ## Transcript [00:00] So what's the key? [ SOUND ] Can we just sing it real [00:00] quick? One, two, three four. [ MUSIC ] A one, a two, [00:05] a one, two, [00:15] three, four. I'm Mitch. I'm Scott. [00:23] I'm Kirsten. I'm Bobby. And I'm Kevin. And we're [00:26] Pentatonix. [ MUSIC ] When we're putting [00:30] together an arrangement, it really is four part. The [00:32] bass, which does the core percussion stuff, we have a [00:33] beatbox, then we have background parts, and then a [00:35] solo. And when you think of it that way, arranging it's [00:38] actually way simpler. So we always start with the [00:41] groove, because we [00:45] get very inspired by that. [ MUSIC ] And [00:52] then we have the base line. [ MUSIC ] And then we [00:56] have a background part. [ MUSIC ] And then we [01:00] just add a harmony to that background part. [ MUSIC ] [01:05] And then the solo goes right on [01:11] top of that. [ MUSIC ] Maybe [ MUSIC ] Yeah, [01:20] and we just add little moments and sounds throughout [01:23] the arrangement to keep it fresh. How many choir [01:24] nerds do we have here? [ APPLAUSE ] We're gonna [01:26] need your notes. [ APPLAUSE ] Mitch, we kinda have, [01:30] do all the super high notes, all those type of moments. [01:33] And then, he has this very imaging and ethereal voice. [01:33] Voice. That' amazing. [ LAUGH ] Scott is [01:39] our baritone. He sings a lot of the leads but he just has [01:41] a really soulful powerful voice. S anytime we really [01:45] need that gritty strong edge to any song, he totally [01:48] brings it and kills it. Kristy hast his really nice tone that [01:51] actually fits really well with my tone when we are [01:53] singing background parts. Sometimes people can't [01:56] really tell who is singing what. The three of us are very [01:59] flexible on where our voices sit and depending on if we [02:01] want like, it's a sound like lower and like rich and full, [02:05] it'll be in different parts of our ranges or it can be like [02:08] really high and breathy. I feel like all that changes is [02:11] like where exactly we're singing and we all kinda trade [02:13] off and fill Right. that part in to which is really. Cool. [02:16] Kevin always kills it on the beat boxing. He basically [02:19] just makes the beat boxing track like all the drums [02:22] and all of that, that's him. And Avi comes in and he [02:25] brings in this bass that builds up the sound so much [02:28] that when we come in together, it really is a [02:48] track that you hear like you hear [02:53] on the radio. Video. One, two, three. 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