Cyclone Voice 2026!
Acclaimed indie-pop/rock band Saint Motel will host Iowa State University’s annual singing competition, Cyclone Voice, on Saturday, May 2. The event will feature 14 ISU students vying to become the next Cyclone Voice. Doors will open by 6:30 p.m. for the 7:00 p.m. show in the Durham Great Hall of the Memorial Union. Admission is free and open to the public.
Joyfully blurring genres, Saint Motel showcase an opulent sound complimentary to their ambitious scope. Streamed and viewed over half-a-billion times, the platinum-selling Los Angeles quartet magnify this vision with immersive live experiences and one unpredictable move after another.
Saint Motel initially broke out with their first full-length album Voyeur in 2012. After signing to Elektra Records, they dropped their 2014 My Type EP along with the RIAA Platinum-certified title track "My Type,” as well as the fan favorite Gold-certified "Cold Cold Man." They’ve toured with Imagine Dragons, Arctic Monkeys, Weezer, Twenty One Pilots, and Panic! At the Disco, to name a few, have lit up stages from Coachella and Lollapalooza to Bonnaroo and beyond, and have been seen on NBC's TODAY Show, ABC's Jimmy Kimmel Live!, CBS' The Late Late Show with James Corden, and more. Their latest album, Afterglow, was released this past October.
The band will host the annual singing competition, introducing the show and each of the student performers. Saint Motel will then also perform their own music set during the judge’s deliberations, before the 2026 Cyclone Voice champion is announced.
30 ISU students registered for the April 21 Cyclone Voice preliminary competition in The Memorial Union Maintenance Shop venue and the judges selected 14 finalists to move on to the final competition. Those finalists include:
- Emma Bertrand | First Year – Marketing | Sioux City, IA
- Andre Dihardjo | Senior – Marketing | Plymouth, MN
- Cecely Dominguez | Senior – Animal Ecology | Marengo, IA
- Frank Engstrom | Sophomore – Environmental Science | Nevada, IA
- Kyle Holtan | Senior – Actuarial Science | Prescott, WI
- Harry Kizer | First Year – Illustration | Omaha, NE
- Alex D. Klein | Graduate Student – Sociology | Mason City, IA
- Sarah Lang | Junior – Aerospace Engineering | Lincoln, NE
- Rebecka Lynn | Junior – English | Sioux City, IA
- Camille Page | Junior – Art | Des Moines, IA
- James Summers | First Year – History | Saint Paul, MN
- Maya Tagoe | Sophomore – Biology & Animal Ecology | Prospects Heights, IL
- Fernanda Tejada | Senior – Industrial Engineering | Lima, Peru
- Anna Tyler | Sophomore – Biology | Dubuque, IA
The free event is sponsored by the Iowa State University Student Union Board (SUB) of the Memorial Union, a student-run programming board that organizes cultural, recreational, educational, social, and entertainment activities and events throughout the academic year and funded by students through Student Government.