Are you looking for music to DJ for Collegiate Shag dancers? You aren’t the only one.

Common search terms that lead people to this blog are “Collegiate Shag songs”, “Collegiate Shag music”, or “What to DJ for Collegiate Shag?”. Since the last time I wrote about DJing music appropriate for Collegiate Shag for my blog was the post DJing for A Collegiate Shag Event. That was almost ten years ago in 2011, I figure it is time for a new post.

I asked Joanna Lucero, the DJ of the Invitational Collegiate Shag Mix & Match at Hot Rhythm Holiday (HRH) about her song selections for the contest and she was kind enough to provide them.

Below is a screen shot Joanna sent over with the song titles, artists, album, BPM, and what part of the contest they were for.

 

Below is a table I created that contains YouTube video links of the songs and the part of the contest that they were played in.

HRH 2020 – Invitational Collegiate Shag Contest Music

Song Name	Artist	Part of Contest
Bulgin’ Eyes	Jack Mcvea and his Orchestra	Warmup Song
Warmin’ Up	Teddy Wilson	Spotlight: Shannon Butler & Nial Bruce
Stompin’ At the Savoy	Ella Fitzgerald and Her Famous Orchestra	Spotlight: Amanda Pincock & Jeremy Otth
Mason Flyer	Lucky Millinder	Spotlight: Laura Keat & Joseph Robinson
Rock and Rye	Earl Hines	Spotlight: Jamie Shannon & Nick Williams
Harlem Jump	Jack Teagarden	Spotlight: Tabitha Robinson & Ben Luhrman
When You’re Smiling	Jimmy Dorsey and His Orchestra	Spotlight: Annabelle Hale & Ryan Martin
Swingin’ In The Promised Land	Edgar Hayes and His Orchestra	Spotlight: Tise Chao & Zach Lockett-Streiff
Sugar Foot Stomp	Ella Fitzgerald and Her Famous Orchestra	Final All-Skate

Fun Takeaways from this Collegiate Shag Contest

• The lowest BPM was 197, the highest BPM was 250, and the average among the nine songs was 228 BPM
• The Warmup was about 1m24s of dancing
• The Final All-Skate was about 1m33s of dancing
• The Spotlights were around 1m40s of dancing on average
• If one wanted to train for a contest like this it would be a reasonable goal to be able to comfortably dance Collegiate Shag at 230bpm for about 1m30s, take a brief break and do it again, then take a longer break and dance 1m40 of a 250bpm song.

Final thoughts & Comments

Joanna made great song choices the DJ for this Collegiate Shag contest and it’s a great opportunity to share this knowledge with other DJs and dancers. Thanks again Joanna for being willing to share your behind the scenes DJing info.

If you’d like to hire Joanna Lucero as a DJ the best way to get a hold of her is to email her at joanna AT joannalucero.com.

I’m hoping to post more about music for Collegiate Shag in the future! If you have any thoughts about music played for Collegiate Shag dances or contests please feel free to add them in the comments below.