BYU Noteworthy, an all-female a cappella ensemble, released their new single March 2. Their cover of “Unsteady” and its music video was made in collaboration with the BYU Cougarettes.
The members of Noteworthy wanted to cover the original song by X Ambassadors to connect with their audience and capture the raw emotions of the song.
BYU graduate student Sarah Cunha has been a member of Noteworthy for three years and is the group’s beat boxer. She said the group chose this song because they wanted to hit a different type of emotion with their audience.
“We were in rehearsal and Bronwyn (another member) said we do this song because most of our songs are really happy and uplifting, but this song talks about pain,” Cunha said. “It’s a real thing, and it’s something everybody can identify with.”
BYU recreational therapy student Alyssa Flake has been an alto in Noteworthy for two years. She said the group wanted to choose a song that would be well-received and connect with its audience.
“The thing that is so cool with this song is that every time we sing this song, you can feel the message beating through you,” Flake said. “It gives you hope to grasp onto. It’s easy to think that everybody has it all together, and you feel like you don’t. That’s what this song is saying: it’s saying hold on and that it’s okay to need help and to reach out and support others around you.”
Cunha said this song opens up a different type of vulnerability.
“It’s such a different emotion and message. It’s very much a message of real pain and reaching out when you need to and being okay with it,” Cunha said.
The music video was filmed in a warehouse located in Spanish Fork and took more than three hours to film.
Family studies senior Bronwyn Bent is a first-year member of the ensemble and said she appreciated the emotions they captured through filming the video.
“It was so cool to collaborate with the Cougarettes because they brought so much energy to it,” Bent said. “It was such an energetic environment the whole time, and everyone was so focused and working hard because everyone was passionate.”
Cunha said the choreography was well placed with the song, and the Cougarettes captured the emotion of the song through their dance in a powerful way.
“A lot of the music video is the two groups coming together and sharing this emotion in the two different media — singing and dancing,” Cunha said. “It was really cool to collaborate and share the message of the song.”
