Thousands of children and young people across the globe sing together for Sing Up Day
17th July 2017
On 22 March 2017, schools all over the world celebrated Sing Up Day. Over 63,000 singers in 300 events across 26 countries and six continents took part.
The 2017 Sing Up Day song, Let love shine through, celebrates uniqueness and diversity in our local and global communities. Schools from across the world sent in their recordings, which we’ve put together in a very special compilation video that you can watch here:
This year we received an incredible 90 videos and audio files, including 15 videos from international schools, making this our biggest and most diverse Sing Up Day yet.
Now more than ever, we need to foster a sense of togetherness. Michelle James, Sing Up’s CEO, explains:
“There’s a reason why music plays an integral role in almost every culture – underpinning our rituals, customs and most important moments of human bonding with our communities. There’s reams of research evidence to show how music benefits us in relation to our forming of connections with one another. To sing with others, in a group, and the feeling of connectedness that it provides is perhaps the most unique and powerful attribute of singing.”
Every year since 2010, Sing Up, the school singing specialists, have set aside a special day to celebrate the power of song and Sing Up releases a special Sing Up Day anthem each year. Schools and singing groups all around the world are encouraged to take part. Pupils, teachers and parents participate in special activities in recognition of the important place singing holds at the heart of school life.
2017’s Sing Up Day anthem was Let love shine through, written by Emily Barden. Its lyrics speak of empowerment through diversity, variety and celebrating individuality. The song is available to download for free from the Sing Up website as well as an array of accompanying resources.
Sing Up would like to say huge thank you to all the schools featured in the video, and also to everyone who took part.
We are thrilled to announce that Sing Up Day returns on 14th March 2018, with thousands of children and young people from all over the world ready to raise their voices and sing together again.
The only continent that didn’t take part in 2017 was Antarctica! If you help us spread the word, maybe we can reach every continent by 2018…
EDITOR’S NOTES
1. Sing Up was government-funded as the National Singing Programme from 2007–2012. During that time 98% of English Primary Schools were registered users of Sing Up’s resources. When the funding came to an end in 2012, Sing Up took the brave step of becoming an independent company and has been entirely self-funded through earned income since then. Sing Up has always been a champion of the wider benefits of singing – for education, social and health outcomes – and are marking our 10th birthday in 2017 by launching the Sing Up Foundation, a new charity with a commitment to a new charitable purpose around singing.
2. Sing Up Day is an annual opportunity for schools sing together. Schools and other participants add their event to the Sing Up Day Map to share what they’ll be doing for Sing Up Day – http://bit.ly/2t1yJUP
3. Watch the lyric video for Let love shine through here.
For further information please contact Claire:
claire.letissier@singup.org
t. 020 7908 5149
Twitter: @SingUpTweets
