Three-Peat for Wishart at House Music 2026

On Tuesday 26 May, the College enjoyed another outstanding evening of student-led choirs and bands. The annual House Music competition remains a highlight of the year, with more than 2,500 students and family members attending the event, and there is something about this night that defies easy explanation.

Following weeks of band rehearsals, full House choir practices, choreography drilled into muscle memory, and lyrics burned into brains, showtime arrived all too quickly. Packed into Due Drop Event Centre, the Houses sized each other up for the first time. Reassured nods within ranks suggested everyone believed this was their year.

Wishart opened the choir category with Brooke Fraser’s There’s Something in the Water. All songs this year drew from New Zealand artists, a fitting celebration of the talent developed on home soil. Wilson followed in Hawaiian shirts and raincoats with Crowded House’s Weather With You, and third to perform were the small but formidable Bruce House with Avalanche City’s Love, Love, Love.

Crowded House proved a popular choice. Classics earn that status for good reason. Choir category winners Chalmers chose Don’t Dream It’s Over, complete with sleeping masks and sharp choreographic cohesion. Cargill sang Green Light by Lorde, a memorable blackout moment revealing a sea of green lights from their  mobile phones. Hamilton House, choir category runners-up, brought soul to the evening with Six60’s Don't Forget Your Roots, and Stark House rounded out the choirs with the Exponents’ Why Does Love Do This to Me.

The House bands followed, each met with resounding applause. The strongest performances combined tight cohesion between instrumentalists and vocalists, genuine entertainment value, and a crowd that was fully engaged. The standout moment of the night came when Wishart broke out the Bang Bang rap and drew everyone to their feet.

While judges Oliver Gilmour, Hinekoia Tomlinson, and recent alumnus Arden Matheson deliberated, the staff band kept the arena warm with a few songs of their own.

When the results came, the anticipation was palpable. Associate Principal Duncan McQueen took the mic to deliver what the Houses had been waiting for. With the band win and third place in the choir category, Wishart claimed the three-peat, cementing their name as House Music champions. A three-way tie on points between Chalmers, Hamilton, and Wilson was broken by choir rankings, pushing Chalmers into second place, and Hamilton into third, rounding out a very talented top three for 2026. 

Results were as follows: 

Overall Ranking:

1st Wishart

2nd Chalmers

3rd Hamilton

4th Wilson

5th Cargill

6th Stark

House Choir: 

1st Chalmers

2nd Hamilton

3rd Wishart

4th Wilson

5th Stark

6th Cargill

7th Bruce House

House Band:

1st Wishart

2nd Wilson

3rd Cargill

4th Hamilton

5th Chalmers

6th Stark