Sweet Adelines International competition

Rönninge Show, performing as reigning champions in 2014
LoveNotes quartet performing as reigning "queens of harmony" in 2014

The Sweet Adelines International Competitions are the annual global championships for women's barbershop harmony a cappella singing – in quartets and choruses – for members of Sweet Adelines International (SAI) and have been held annually between September and November since 1947.[1] They are now the largest women's singing competition in the world with over 8000 participants at the 2014 convention.[2] There are two competitions for choruses (the international championships and the "Harmony Classic" for smaller choruses), and two competitions for quartets (the international championships and the "Rising Star" for young singers). Currently, the first three of these competitions are held together and form the Sweet Adelines International Convention. Over the course of competition history, the most successful chorus has been Melodeers Chorus from Chicago with seven championship titles, and the most successful quartet singer was Connie Noble who won with four separate quartets. Lustre Quartet from Baltimore holds the record for highest quartet score, and Rönninge Show Chorus from Stockholm for highest ever chorus score.[3]

The women stand up, let their arms fall to their sides, and then Patsy reaches into her pocket and places a small pitch tuner to her mouth. A very impressive wall of sound emanates from the four women, who start singing "The Joint Is Jumping"... [They] explain that they're trying to raise money for their first trip to the Sweet Adelines Convention and Competition...the Sweet Adelines is an organisation for promoting women's barbershop singing groups that's been around since the 1940s. "Every year they have a big convention and competition somewhere. It's huge," Jane says. "We've been singing together for years, but we finally decided to take a shot at it."

Joseph Blum, Bedtime Stories: A Novel of Cinematic Wanderlust[4]

  1. ^ "Competition". Sweet Adelines International. Retrieved 18 February 2015.
  2. ^ Leong, Tracey (7 November 2014). "Thousands Gathering In Baltimore For Largest Women's Singing Competition". CBS Baltimore. Retrieved 14 February 2015.
  3. ^ Leijonhufvud, Susanna; Nyberg, Johan (25 April 2014). Assessment of musical quality: a case study of achieving a World Champion title in chorus singing. Nordic Network for Research in Music Education. Archived from the original on 18 May 2015. Retrieved 25 April 2015.
  4. ^ Blum, Joseph (2007). "XIV". Bedtime Stories: A Novel of Cinematic Wanderlust. Jake Spinner LLC. p. 127. ISBN 9780979981609.