'The Sing-Off SA' gives local groups a chance to get in on the a cappella action, writes Rebecca Davis Dearly beloved, we are living in an a cappella moment. Don't look at me - I have no idea how it happened either. We spend centuries developing instruments and music production techniques to make us sound less like we're sitting around crooning by the fire in a cave, and then we go and throw it all away. A cappella used to be the gold standard for dorkiness. Suddenly, a few finger-snaps and some harmonising turns you into a rock star.It's a topsy-turvy world, and Glee has to shoulder a lot of the blame. Gone are the days when Glee was an influential cultural source, admittedly, but we only have to travel back a few short years to be in a period where Glee was exactly that. It took marginalised high-school students and pretended that conventional social hierarchies in secondary education could be magically overturned via the power of a few show-tunes.story_article_left1Then Pitch Perfect came along: the 2012 movie about an all-female college a cappella group in the US, which proved an unexpected smash hit. Its sequel, released earlier this year in South Africa, has done even more magnificently at the box office, despite the fact that it is quite embarrassing and not as funny as its fans pretend.Add to the mix South African a cappella group The Soil, who have sold a double platinum album and now get invited to perform at all sorts of international festivals. They have the kind of talent that gives them a pass even with people who are normally a cappallergic. The same goes for South Africa's godfathers of a cappella, Ladysmith Black Mambazo. You can't hate Ladysmith Black Mambazo. Who are you, Satan?Another driver of this a cappella madness has been a TV show created by NBC in 2009, The Sing-Off. The show pitted eight US a cappella groups against each other in a competition decided by audience votes, and again emerged a surprise hit with viewers. Subsequent seasons featured judges like Nicole Scherzinger of the Pussycat Dolls and, er, Jewel. (Remember Jewel?)Now South Africa has had its chance to get in on the a cappella action. The past few weeks have seen the preliminary rounds of Sing-Off SA broadcast on Sunday nights on SABC1, and now we're down to the final four acts. "No instruments, no auto-tune, just voices," runs the blurb. Is that a promise or a threat? Fortunately judges Zakes Bantwini, HHP and Zolani Mahola of Freshlyground tell it like it is. "When you split up it's like you're singing in different rooms," Mahola broke it to a group recently. When a cappella is good, it can be hugely impressive. When it's bad, it can be unbearable, like having a troupe of tiny people playing different melodies on a marimba that is your skull.Still, it's hard not to root for the groups left in the competition, all of whom seem earnestly committed to their craft (and, perhaps, the R250 000 prize). There's Cape Town group Solid, who bring swag. There's KwaZulu-Natal's The Legacy, who were told by HHP that he liked them "all day, every day, thrice on Sunday". There's Jozi's Question Mark, one member of which appears to be about 2.5m tall, unless the others are just really short. And then there's the Eastern Cape's Legato, who everyone seems to think will win.If Legato did take it, it would be fitting: apparently the Eastern Cape is the epicentre of South Africa's a cappella scene. If you didn't know that, get with the programme! A cappella's where it's at...