#singtopia

5 Ways to Just Start Singing ... And Get the World Party Started!

You have a gift. You’ve had this gift ever since you were able to speak and may not have even known about it. You can sing!

This post is the first in a weekly series we're dubbing "How To Sing! Properly." They're designed to get you warmed up and on your way to channelling your inner Sinatra or Rihanna. We created this series because so many of you asked us for tips and tricks on how to make the most of Smule's Sing! app. So grab your phone, fire up Sing! and let's get the party started! 

March 2014 marks a very important time in the history of the Smule Community. Smule’s largest online community of Sing!ers known as Singtopia! Singtopia was founded one year ago this month! They are a vibrant, world-wide community of people supporting each other in their creative endeavors and providing all sorts of fun new ways to interact, collaborate, and share the joy of making music. The story of this group is a classic tale of a few individuals banding together to create, develop, and sustain a vision that has strengthened over time to help make Sing! Karaoke what it is today!

The History of Singtopia

Maria Limperos (Maria66), Nikki Nemeyer (NikkiSongs), and Adrian Sings (AdrianSings) met while creating performances in Sing! Karaoke during the second half of 2012. After many months of singing together and discovering a ton of other Sing!-happy people, their absolute love for the app drove them to want to do something different and spectacular and give back to the Sing! community. This common interest led to the birth of Singtopia, which couldn’t be a more fitting name.

Since the group was founded, a few other key members have stepped up to help support the group as official admins: ElyssHARMONY, iAm_Vince_Encore, iMezlopes_PGS, KingRR, swtsndzz.

If you hop on over to Singtopia feel free to introduce yourself to them :)

What Makes Singtopia Special

It is impossible to sum up the Singtopia community (which now has over 1,300 members) in a single blog post. What started as a simple Facebook group has expanded beyond its single group origins and is now essentially a mini-empire of Sing!ers spread across the internet. But as far reaching as it is, this group manages to stay true to its roots and maintain its ability to act as an enhancement of the Sing! Karaoke app experience.

I connected with Maria (who is known as the face of Singtopia) to help me create this post and try to distill the group into a few of its parts.

Singtopia’s Mission

“Our mission was simply to be all-inclusive and to provide a fun, interactive place for Sing! users to collaborate with each other, share performances, learn about the Sing! app features and updates, interact within the community and the app and overall just to have fun and enhance the Sing! experience” - Maria

Singtopia Programs and Affiliated Groups

Singtopia is home to a variety of programs that keep the group fresh and members feeling welcomed, engaged, and connected. One of the programs, my personal favorite, called Singtopia International, is a series of collaborations sung in many different languages including: English, French, Spanish, Italian, Greek, German, Chinese, Japanese, Indonesian, Korean, Arabic, Tagalog, Portuguese, Dutch, Italian. The International program really drives home the fact that music is a universal language, and reflects the core mission of Smule to connect people around the world through music. I HIGHLY recommend checking out some of the performances that SI has generated!

Singtopia has also spawned a number of spin-off groups that address more specific musical interests, making sure that there really is something for everyone. One such group called Singtopia Vocal Skills Workshop is for people who want to learn and grow as vocalists. People in this group share tips on how to be a better singer, provide constructive criticism about each other’s performances, and there have even been free vocal lessons from some Sing!ers who are professional vocal coaches!

Sounds of Singtopia

Considering the group is centered around making music, I asked Maria to send me a couple performances that are representative of the group. Here’s a few songs that represent the various facets of Singtopia!

Japanese Collaboration and first Singtopia! International Feature

First Singtopia group song - celebrating the group reaching 150 members

Dedication to one of Smule’s greatest emerging artists, Guy Lockard!!

TrebleX (group formed out of Singtopia) singing in sympathy of a family of member

Largest Singtopia International Collaboration

Just plain awesome. Mashing up Bollywood with Justin Timberlake

Happy Birthday!

Of course this is just a smattering of some of the cool things Singtopia has been up to over the past year. For me personally, watching Singtopia’s progress has been an absolute pleasure and I’ve been delighted and inspired on a daily basis by the awesome stuff coming form the group.

So happy birthday Singtopia! We look forward to all of the things you produce in year two!

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