Dan McNeillBefore turning his focus to medicine, Dan McNeill’s first passion was singing.

Because he pursued that passion, McNeill, 22, a first-year student at the UAB School of Medicine from Woodstock, Ga., got the chance of a lifetime to perform with his collegiate acapella group to a national audience on The Sing-Off: Holiday Special, a one-night, two-round singing competition that aired on NBC in December 2014.

McNeill transferred to Vanderbilt after his freshman year at Mercer University in Macon, Ga., to purse more extra-curricular opportunities in music. He found just that in the Melodores, an all-male student acapella group. Competition to land a spot in the group was tough—McNeill estimated between 70-75 students auditioned each year with only three to four being chosen—but he was selected as a member.

The group performed regularly at campus and community events in Nashville, along with an annual fall tour that took them to high schools and colleges in other cities. It was on a tour stop—this one in Boston—that the group heard they would be performing on The Sing-Off, having auditioned for the show at an open call in Nashville in early October.

“We had just finished a gig and were waiting by the roadside for a cab that would take us to our second performance that night when Augie Phillips, the Melodores president at the time, told us we would be going on the show,” McNeill said. “We were so excited to have been picked.”

The Melodores was one of six groups chosen to perform for the special. McNeill said the groups spent a week and a half in November 2014 in Los Angeles rehearsing, performing and filming.

“It was a complete whirlwind,” McNeill said. “My flight, and those of a couple of my fellow Melodores, was delayed, so as soon as we landed in L.A., we were whisked straight from the airport to the studio for a costume fitting. If we weren’t working with the producers on things they needed from us for the special, we were working hard in rehearsals to give the show our best possible performance.   I think we practiced for 80 hours in five days.”

All the hard work certainly paid off for the Melodores. They bested the other teams in the two-round process with their performances of Jason Derulo’s “Trumpets” and Hozier’s “Take Me to Church,” which featured McNeill as the lead solo vocalist.

“It honestly felt incredible,” McNeill said of singing inside the famed Dolby Theatre. “We had worked so hard and performing in front of that cheering crowd was amazing. There’s really no better feeling in the world than knowing that you’re able to convey emotion in a performance well enough that people in the audience can feel something.”

During the rush of performing with the Melodores, auditioning for The Sing-Off and taping the special, McNeill had another big task: applying to medical school. He said he had completed all the secondary applications by the time the group traveled to L.A., but not being able to tell people the Melodores won the competition until the special aired a month later made for awkward moments in his interviews.

“I had an interview at another medical school that happened before the show aired in December.  I couldn’t reveal any details, but I could say that I had a great experience and encourage the interviewers to watch the show to see what happened,” he said.

The Melodores performing Hozier's "Take Me to Church" on The Sing-Off.McNeill earned his bachelor’s degree in medicine, health and society, with a minor in chemistry from Vanderbilt in 2015. When he started looking at medical schools, he and his fiancée Morgan Aszman looked at universities where he could begin his medical training and where she could attend a physical therapy program in the same city.

“UAB is the only place where we were both accepted, and we couldn’t have been happier with that outcome,” McNeill said. “It was an incredible blessing for us to be accepted at UAB because it has great programs in medicine and physical therapy. I didn’t expect to end up at UAB, but I’m so glad we’re here.”

Now with the rigors of the medical school curriculum, McNeill doesn’t have much time to sing, though he does get in a few notes in the car and on weekends when a group of his medical school classmates gets together to jam.

 “Medical school is definitely fast-paced, but it’s going well,” he said. “There are a lot of amazing people in my class, and I’m really excited to keep moving with them and keep getting to know them in our journeys to becoming doctors and learning how to serve our patients well.”

He’s gotten involved with the student pediatric interest group Nuts About Peds and hopes to pursue another passion through the Volunteer student interest group: tutoring underserved children.

“Education is such an influential starting point for so many people, and a child getting a firm grasp on reading and math can really impact their chances to be successful academically. If I can do anything to help a child achieve their goal of graduating from high school or college, then that’s something I’m proud to dedicate time to.”