For the moment you've all been waiting for! Your whole lives! Because this is the most important thing ever! LOL! j/k, but really, this is the first ever official submission thread for the new Steemit Karaoke Contest!!! How does it work? Below, you will see five songs to choose from. Pick the one you like best and record yourself singing along with it. Then, drop your video and/or link to your post with the video of you down there in the comments section. Easy, right? There are a few rules to help keep it sane.

RULES

1. The 1st tag for your submission post must be #karaokecontest.
2. This submission thread must be upvoted and curated (resteemed).
3. Your video of yourself singing must be in comments of this post (so you can get the popularity vote), or at least a link to your Steemit post entry.
4. You 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) in the comments below, 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. @enginewitty has donated 10 SBD and any revenue from the thread will be added 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 each new submission thread.

And the judges are… @hardikv, who was the winner of Open Mic 39 (2nd position) and won @fyrstikken's 50k SP for a week contest. We’re excited to have him aboard. Check out his band, Alif @muziclub. @chiefmappster who is the founding member of the Beat Battle League and also a strong supporter of many movements here on Steemit. Also, @jaynie has agreed to step her passionate self up to the plate and be a judge for us. 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!

This is all made possible by the fantastic community and involvement we have here on Steemit. Huge kudos to @enginewitty for the vision and fellow member of #thealliance @michaeldavid for helping orchestrate this contest. Music is an art and passion of ours and we would now like to bring up our strongest supporters and think you should give them a Shout too!

Look into the Open Mic contest, put on by @luzcypher! Support your favorite artists by stopping in to see their entries and show them some love! They are entering week 45! Big hugs to @jessamynorchard for connecting the dots!

You have to stop in and hear some of these guys at the Rap Challenge contest, they are phenomenal! Big Shout to @rondonson and all he’s doing to propel the Hip-Hop community here on Steemit! They are going into week 9 over there, Check out the winners from last week!

There are DJ’s here on Steemit that are top-notch! Props to @chiefmappster for coordinating the Beat Battle League. Be sure to stop in and give all those great artists involved, your support! Go see the competition this week!

Ah yes, what songs are we able to choose from this first week? Since this is the very first Karaoke Contest, we’ve decided to go with some of the greatest songs of all time. We plan to do themes each week and there will be a theme suggestion post every Saturday for people that have a desire for a certain genre or era of music, so be on the lookout for it!

1) Beyonce – Halo

2) Michael Jackson – Man in the Mirror

3) John Lennon – Imagine

4) Whitney Houston – I Will Always Love You

5) Elvis Presley – (Let Me Be Your) Teddy Bear

Let's see some of that fantastic Steemit musical spirit! Put your fabulous submissions below!