On Wednesday 13 March 2019 we’ll be celebrating our 10th Sing Up Day event. As we approach our annual celebration of singing, we wanted to look back at how the Sing Up community has grown and remember some of our favourite moments from recent years.
When the first National Sing Up Day took place on 24 February 2010, 83% of schools in England were using Sing Up. At the time we delivered the government funded National Singing Programme for the country. The celebration was an English exclusive, and events included a beatboxing training day in Bradford, a flight-themed singalong in Bristol and a mass musical gathering in the centre of Manchester.
For the second National Sing Up Day in 2011, we teamed up with Sign2Sing and broke a Guinness World Record with 90,000 children around the world signing and singing at the same time. An incredible 800 events took place and many schools used the event to help them achieve Sing Up Awards.
In 2013 we selected the first Sing Up Day ‘anthem’ and released the first Digichoir video. Featuring the song Can you hear my voice? (which is still a popular concert number in the Song Bank), the video included just nine schools – three of which we were glad to see were still with us on Sing Up Day 2018.
It wasn’t until 2015 that we made Sing Up Day a worldwide event. That year’s Digichoir included our first international school video from Girls’ College Bulawayo in Zimbabwe, and we’ve loved watching their singing grow as they’ve continued to send us Digichoir videos every year since.
By 2016, the worldwide Sing Up Day events totalled nearly 200 with 44,000 singers spread across 18 countries including the UK. We started to see schools using the annual Sing Up Day anthem (One and a million that year) as part of assemblies based around important lessons of inclusivity, community and positive celebrations of our differences.
On last year’s Sing Up Day, on 14 March 2018, 55,000 singers across 32 countries joined us in spreading a little singing. The Digichoir included an incredible 103 video submissions. Our Members continue to show us that, little by little, we can make a difference by singing together.
Join us in 2019 as we work towards building an inclusive community with this year’s powerful song, One moment, one people.
How to take part in Sing Up Day 2019
- Head to www.singup.org/singupday for everything you need to know about Sing Up Day, the Digichoir videos from previous years, and how to get involved.
- Add your event to our worldwide map at www.singup.org/SUDmap so that we know you’re taking part – help us break last year’s participant record.
- This year’s Sing Up Day anthem One moment, one people is suitable for all ages with a catchy chorus that younger singers will love and harmony options for more confident singers. Everything is freely available to both Members and Friends so make sure you spread the word among the teachers and choir leaders in your community.
- Get resources for a spectacular Sing Up Day at www.singup.org/SUDresources – including a Vocal Leader Pack with quick tips, an Assembly Plan and other teaching ideas, a Pupil Pack full of independent pupil activities, a playlist and more.
- Finally, don’t forget to record your singers performing One moment, one people during your Sing Up Day events and send the footage to [email protected] to be entered into this year’s Digichoir. We can’t wait to sing with you on 13 March.