Does anyone know the history behind this rule? why? WHY? WHY??

I think it's an old tradition, the reasoning was probably that it was "not in keeping with the dignity of the sport" and perhaps that it was "distracting". I actually think it's not such a bad rule.

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Gordon Zaft
http://sk8rboi.blogspot.com
School figures are skating's equivalent of the Latin Mass.

Yeah, sometimes music with vocals can be hard to cut down to the program length, and sometimes it's repetitious. But there are also a lot of neat pieces that I'd love to use for FS but can't...

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I like the rule too. I don't even allow my ISI kids that are above pre-alpha to have words in their technicals. That's why they have spotlights. I HATE seeing higher level kids, like freestyle 4 ^, skating to some Avril Lavigne song or something for their tech. It bugs the heck out of me!

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- Ashley

Actually I think *some* vocals are allowed. We had some men and women at the Nationals this year with "ooooOOOOOOoooOOOOhhhhhhh" and "AAAAaaaaAAAAAAhhhh" sounds in it. I think only lyrics aren't allowed.

That's correct. Vocals are fine as long as there are no actual words. Even scat and doo-wop are fine, since those aren't real words with meanings.

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"You don't have to put an age limit on your dreams." - Dara Torres, 41, after her 2nd medal at the 2008 Olympics

This was my understanding of the rule, too, and I even have skated a program with such non-word vocals. I did a silver freestyle program to "Look Down" from Les Mis, which has some "uhhhh uhhhhh"s in it.

But I have seen this rule stretched a couple of times, most obviously by Todd Eldredge doing Carmina Burana. Those vocals are certainly words, just not in English. So since Latin is a dead language it doesn't count? Is that actually written in the rules? "Vocals are allowed to be actual words if nobody on the planet still speaks that language." Well, what about the Pope? I bet they forgot about him. Not that the Vatican would watch men's figure skating - I'm thinking they'd have a "problem" or two with the whole scene, if you catch my drift.

Tim

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Also, at Nationals this year, part of Eliot Halverson's long program was to Maksim Mrvica's Nostradamus...and the word "Nostradamus" was quite audibly sung.

ROTFLMAO!
*stands up from the floor, holding tummy*
You crack me up.