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. They are now the largest women's singing competition in the world with over 8000 participants at the 2014 convention. 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. MAXX Factor from Baltimore holds the record for highest quartet score, and Rönninge Show Chorus from for highest ever chorus score.

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."

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. The competition was expanded to include choruses in 1973 and in 2000 the Harmony Classic competition for small and medium-sized choruses was introduced. 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 under-25 years old. It was also held as part of convention from 2009 until 2012 but due to scheduling and cost constraints is now held independently again. Many non-competitive performances are also held during convention week, including by the previous year's chorus and quartet champions.

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