Last week we returned to the Sunderland Empire for our biggest and best Sunderland Sings yet!

Sunderland Sings is our annual celebratory event, where we invite schools and young people from across the city to join our live on-stage band for a day of singing in one of the region’s most iconic venues.

This year’s theme of a Summer of Sport saw the Olympics stop-off in Sunderland on route to Paris, featuring songs of artists from around the World. There was musical representation from as far afield as South Africa, Japan, Canada, Spain and many other nations. Not only had the children attending learned all our songs in advance of the show, but had practised doing so in languages including Japanese, French and a traditional Indian raga.

Due to increasing popularity and interest in the event, two performances were scheduled for the first time this year. As ever, the afternoon show proved to be a real party, with reports of the children’s singing and dancing being heard all the way from Paris! To ensure Sunderland Sings remained fun and accessible for all, our morning show involved sound levels being lower, lights remaining on throughout and all children being seated in the ground-level stalls, for those who preferred a more relaxed environment.

With two shows taking place, this year saw a record number of young people in attendance, with nearly 1,500 children from 40 schools joining us across the day.

What’s more, not only were we and the teachers fortunate enough to hear their great singing, but we were lucky to joined by none other than the Mayor herself, Allison Chisnall!

Sunderland Music Hub would like to say a huge thank you to Sunderland Empire’s Creative Learning team for their help coordinating both shows, our on-stage Makaton tutor Peter Rooney who signed our children throughout the event, and all the school staff involved in practising the songs with their children to get them sounding so good on the day. Most importantly though, we want to say thank you and well done to every child that joined us for putting so much effort into learning the songs of different nations, for their brilliant singing and for being the perfect audience for our band- we can’t wait for you to join us again next year!