Saturday 7 May 2011

The expectations were high as we got ready to compete at the Sweet Adelines Convention in the UK & Netherlands region (Region 31). We’d manage a silver medal in the 2010 event. Everyone was very excited. All the work we’d put in! Now we’d get to see if we’d be able to put that into practice.
We warmed up in the mall area of the Birmingham Symphony Hall. Many people who didn’t know about the competition stopped to listen to us. Their appreciation helped our confidence and calmed a few nerves. Then we were called through to backstage. We’re all rehearsing in our heads; some are humming, others going through the choreography. We’re buzzing.
ON STAGE! All smiles and applause as we take up our positions. Deep breaths. Keep smiling. Pitch pipe sounds, and we’re off with our first song – You’re Nobody Til Somebody Loves You. We give our all – and the audience shows their appreciation. Relief. More smiles. Get your breath back. Ready for the next one. We start our comic take on the Impossible Medley. It’s going great. They’re laughing in all the right places. We finish – and the audience gives us a standing ovation. Wow!
We could hardly believe the response we received. Every moment we’d agonised over to achieve that result was worthwhile. But there was more to come. Not only did we receive popular support but the judges awarded us the GOLD medal in the Small Chorus category. Celebrations and delight for all of us.
We were invited back to perform in the evening’s Show of Champions. After that we partied through the night.

Saturday 16 April 2011
We were delighted to get through to the Top Choir of Kent final. The competition was organised by the Rotary Club in Canterbury and the final was held in the Shirley Hall in Kings School, Canterbury.
The final was of an excellent standard with choirs from a variety of genres. It’s so hard to compare choral groups with community choirs, baroque with barbershop. All styles were represented. The only requirement was that the choir be unaccompanied.
There was no backstage available to us, so we had to reach the stage by walking through the middle of the audience. This was a bit daunting but it boosted the adrenalin levels.
After a lovely MC introduction we started with Lazy Day. We’re often told about how valuable it is to energise our performance. We certainly reaped the benefit of this as we could feel the audience warm to us. It changed to a magical still as we sang the beautiful ballad Shangri-la. By the time we finished with our version of Somebody To Love they were all rocking with us. It was a great feeling.
After much deliberation, the head judge came back to the stage to announce the results. The winner is ………VIVA ACAPPELLA! I’m afraid we reverted to stereotypical female behaviour – we all screamed. There was laughter and a few tears. It was very exciting.
The icing on the cake was that so many people came up to congratulate us. People we didn’t know. They just wanted to tell us how much they’d enjoyed it. Fabulous.