Sweet Adelines International competition
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.
[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.
The first convention was held in Tulsa, Oklahoma in 1947 for quartets – two years after the foundation of the first Sweet Adelines Inc. chapter in the city.
Originally, Harmony Classic was held independently but since 2009 all three are now hosted together and run over the course of the convention week.
A fourth event, the "Rising Star" competition, was introduced in 1999 for quartets whose members are 25 years old or younger.
Many non-competitive performances are also held during convention week, including by the previous year's chorus and quartet champions.
[9] From 2015 to 2017, the city of Las Vegas hosted the convention – the first time that the event has stayed in the same location for more than one year.
[11] Since 2004, the competition has been livestreamed over the internet as a popular donation-funded webcast, operated by an in-house media production team.
[16] For quartets, qualification proceeds in much the same manner as for choruses – with regional winners and wildcard places.
There is no formal qualification process for the international Rising Star competition; rather, an eligible quartet registers their interest.
A quartet may compete at the Rising Star competition several years in succession, provided all its members remain 25 years old or younger, but winning quartets may not compete in the Rising Star competition again.
From 1985 the two competitions' structures were standardised to the semi-final/final format (semi-final for all qualifiers, final for the top 5) This set the new perfect score for both choruses and quartets at 3200.
Two years after that in 1989, the quartet competition re-introduced the quarter-final with a reduced score (20 per judge) but retaining the bonus points system in the final.
Following a further rule change, from the 2015 competition the "bonus points" were removed, reducing the perfect score back to the 1985 standard of 3200.
In the regional and semi-final competitions, each contestant must perform two songs – normally an "up-tune" and a ballad – in the order of their choice.
In the chorus competition props, costume changes, medley/mashup choral arrangements, and elaborate (even gymnastic) choreography moves are also common.
As a consolation prize, the 11th ranked chorus or quartet is invited to perform their own package at the beginning of the final round as the "mic[rophone] testers".
The visual layout of the scorecards have changed from year to year, but an example of how of a performer's semi-final scorecard from international competition appears is as follows (equally applicable to a chorus or quartet): C# refers to "contestant number" i.e. the order of appearance.
# refers to "number [on stage]" i.e. the size of the chorus, relevant for calculating the "harmony achievement" award.
These ranges are as follows:[19] The singers of the top-10 placed choruses and quartets in the main competitions are awarded medals with a designated color.
As the current title holders, the winners are permitted to wear these medals around their neck on a ribbon of the same color until the following year's competition.
Customarily these are worn as a group in a manner similar to military service ribbons, often attached to the chest with a brooch-like clasp.
In addition, international quartet champions are awarded a tiara or crown each – every year of a different design – and are proclaimed "Queens of Harmony",[22][23] this title having been in use since at least 1960.
This recognises the chorus that achieved the highest score, despite having relatively fewer singers on stage.
Equally, from 2015 no "bonus points" are awarded in the final round, reducing the total score.
2021 From the competition's inception to the 1992 edition, the winning quartet was named champion of the year that they competed in.
However, because the earlier winners competed in three rounds, their grand total scores are correspondingly larger.
They may earn a gold medal after that time if the quartet makes the request on her behalf for one and the Coronet Club and International Board approve it.
However, in 2013 it was decided to return to operating the competition separately due to the expense and scheduling difficulty of fitting in with the other convention events.
