Michigan School In Finals For Metallica Marching Band Competition

In 2023, the massive metal band Metallica opened up part of their library for public use, but with a very specific purpose - They wanted to hear marching bands cover them, and bring Metallica into the performing arts arena of schools around the country.

What resulted was hundreds of high schools and college taking these iconic Metallica songs, and performing them under no threat of copyright infringement. One Michigan High School took advantage of the opportunity, and could potentially win up to $15,000 worth of new equipment, thanks to Metallica.

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"Metallica challenges marching bands at all levels to craft the most exciting, unique, and impressive performances of Metallica's music.
Bands who enter the competition will have access to a library of marching band charts for Metallica songs, provided by Hal Leonard... The band with the best performances will win musical equipment for their school program, furnished by Metallica and our sponsors."

Hundreds of bands across the country entered the contest, and now, the voting is underway, and one band vying for the best Medium-sized High School is from DeWitt, Michigan.

The Marching Panthers chose to arrange a version of "Enter Sandman" from Metallica in their show for 2023. Director Mike Norman told WLNS News 6 that they were thrilled to even be thought of, let alone a finalist in the competition.

"I can't believe that - one of the biggest groups in the world, right? Everybody knows them, is watching our tiny little town do their thing with our kids. I think that's really awesome.
We work really hard and we're trying to do cool things at a high level if we can. And so that's just another moment, where we go, 'All Right, people are noticing this, cool things are happening here.' I just want people to love what we're doing. But my kids are awesome."

Voting ended on Dec. 31st, unfortunately, but this week, we should know who comes out on top. DeWitt is up against four other schools from Boerne, Texas, Scottsdale, Arizona, Kennesaw, Georgia, and Malverne, New York.

You can watch DeWitt's performance below. Good luck Panthers.