Thanks to @enginewitty and the brainstorming efforts of @michaeldavid, we will be having a Karaoke Contest starting next week! So here we go, starting Mondays the 7th of August at 12:00 a.m. through Fridays at 11:59 p.m. CST (or as close as we can get there) The Karaoke Contest will begin. How does it work? We’re going to give you five songs to choose from. You pick your favorite and record yourself singing along with it, and drop your video and/or link to your post down there in the comments. Easy, right?

To help get this rolling and show our love of the musical artistry here on Steemit, we will be cross-posting with several other musically supportive contests here on Steemit. One is the Open Mic Submission threads, where @luzcypher has graciously agreed to promote us and likewise, we will promote their contest. Many thanks for that!

@Rondonson will be giving us a 'Shout' on his Rap Challenge threads, props to ya bro!

And we have recently gotten permission from @chiefmappster to be listed on and post his new Beat Battle League!

Karaoke Contest Specifics

RULES

1. The 1st tag for your submission post must be #karaokecontest.
2. Submission thread must be upvoted and curated (resteemed).
3. Video of entrant singing must be in comments of submission thread (so you can get the popularity vote), or at least a link to their post.
4. Must choose one of our selected songs to sing along to.

JUDGING CATEGORIES

1. Popular vote: This will carry 40% of the overall score. Whoever has the most upvotes (not reward amount for the post), will win the popular vote. You may only vote for yourself ONCE, purchased bot votes for yourself will not count.
2. Timing: 20% weight - how close you are to the timing of the original lyrics.
3. Pitch: 20% weight - how close you are to staying on key to the original lyrics.
4. Likeness: 20% weight - how much you actually sound like and embody the singer of the original lyrics.

PRIZES

We will award prizes for 1st, second and third places the following Tuesday (8 days later for the payout). Estimated prize pools will be announced upon submission closure for the week, which still gives you ALL of Saturday to attain more popularity votes. I'm sure that in the beginning, prize pools will vary. Any sponsorship and/or SBD revenue will be the contributors to the contest purse. Steem Power generated will be used to maintain @killerwhale's voracious appetite. Winners will be announced Mondays with the posting of the new submission thread.

We have our judges set now! @hardikv, who was the winner of Open Mic 39 (2nd position) and won @fyrstikken's 50k SP for a week contest! Excited to have his musical talents aboard. @chiefmappster, who is also a judge of the Rap Challenge, has graciously agreed to help us. Also, @jaynie has agreed to step her passionate self up to the plate and be one of our thoughtful sets of ears and eyes. Thankful for all of you. And finally, we have @michaeldavid doing the magical math involved with tallying all the scores so...he's the one you'll have to bribe if you really want to win LOL j/k! This is going to be fun though everyone, we're excited!

#thealliance Updates

Wait...what in Steemit is #thealliance????
#thealliance is a group of 'allies' that consistently support each other here on Steemit, upvoting and curation being just a small part of our teamwork. Members come and members go, but the underlying thing that we all have in common is, we are great content creators, and don't mind taking the time to actually read a post and give a full fledged opinion in replies and comments. Feel free to follow us around on here or on Twitter, or you can be as bold to join our group on 'that other network', Facebook. It works by using our tag #thealliance here on Steemit. Simple enough, right? Follow us and we'll find you.

Current active allies are:

@enginewitty - participant in the rap challenge, crytpo fanatic, poet

@michaeldavid - brilliant inspirational blogger

@miriamslozberg - the 'mom blogger'

@thequeendizzle - fairly new to steemit, a ray of sunshine

@sagittarianqueen - the sagittarian warrior

@mcoinz79 - adventurous single father

@flexifriday - musician and food lover

@rlyeh - small business owner and blogger

@classydapper - the man to see about men's attire

@nolnocluap - all about money and great sense of humor

@awarenessraiser - solid spiritual vlogger

@jan-mccomas - likes photography, music, and 'living off the grid'

@jrtbx - into crypto, an environmentalist, and actor

@christheaudioguy - miner and fitness fanatic

@stephiesawyer - big into essential oils and all around sweetheart

@jaynie - one of the most passionate people and bloggers you'll ever meet

@eddyova - learning the ropes on steemit

@sam19 - bitcoin lover

@thedamus - into precious 'heavy' metals and coins

@nagavolu - starting to grasp steemit

@phelimint - imaginative precious metals and coin collector

@jrandolph - photographer and gold/silver lover

@anialexander - best selling author and great poet

@donatello - musician and proud father

@hardikv - musician and producer

@tattoodjay - transplant photographer

@razux - heavy on the comments and curation

and be sure to follow our pet @killerwhale!

Thanks for stopping in! Just keep swimming...just keep swimming...