Lang Hall Auditorium was packed with enthusiastic UNI students and community members on Friday evening as the UNI Varsity Men’s Glee Club presented their fifth annual Welcome Home Concert.

“We are an unauditioned group of talented, loving, cuddly and charismatic people who have come to steal your heart with the power of music and preposterous amounts of swag,” said junior religion and history major Josh Brooks, addressing the audience at the start of the concert.

“We are so excited to welcome you all back to the school we love,” added fellow Glee Club member Bryce Cox, a senior elementary education major who serves as head of social media for the Glee Club Council.

The Glee Club performed UNI standards such as “Brothers Sing On,” “Jolly Students” and “Hail UNI.” Also included were fan favorites “Oba Se Je” and contemporary selections by a capella group The Singpins, who performed “Hooked on a Feeling” and “Death of a Bachelor.”

“I love ‘Death of a Bachelor,’ so it took everything in me not to sing it,” said Kyleigh Cowles, a junior elementary education major with minors in special education and math.

Cowles attended the concert for the first time at the recommendation of a friend.

“I thought it was really good,” she said.

Freewill donations were accepted for the Northeast Iowa Food Bank. Logan Chaloupka, senior English education major and head of music for the Glee Club Council, announced that $652.00 had been raised prior to the concert’s conclusion.

Cox and Brooks invited all Glee Club alumni to join the group onstage for the final two numbers: “UNI Alma Mater” and “UNI Fight Song.”

“We believe in the power of music to lift up, inspire and help make the world a better place,” Chaloupka said. “We hope we’ve made your world a better place tonight.”