Saturday, January 8, 2011

Lil Suzy's Paradise: 10 YEARS!

Hey Lil Suzy fans! Today marks the 10th Anniversary since the creation and launching of Lil Suzy's Paradise!  Wow, we can't believe that it's been ten years! We designed the original site in the fall/winter of 2000 and launched the website as a fansite to Lil Suzy on January 8th, 2001.  The response to the site was very positive and supportive and a few years later Lil Suzy decided to utilize the fansite as her official website.  From then on, we became her official webmasters of her online presence.


This site has had many incarnations over the years and we wrote about that in last year's 9th Anniversary post.  Last year, we also wrote how creating this fansite led us to great little opportunities that we never thought possible.  For a little more history on the website you can read last year's anniversary post, which also contains screenshots of all the many past 'looks' of the website.


For the 10th Anniversary we wanted to share something that we had written on the original fansite from 2001. We had it in mind to post it here, but unfortunately after alot of searching, we couldn't find the write up. Back then, we had written about the reason we created the fansite for Lil Suzy. So being that the writings from the original site are stuck in an old web design software that we can't seem to open up, we have recreated (from memory) what we wrote way back when, along with the origin of LSP.

The reason we decided to create a fansite for Lil Suzy was because Freddy (webmaster) had it in his mind to create a fan website for a music artist.  He thought Madonna? Britney? Nah, they had dozens of fan sites already. (FYI - Eventually we created an extremely short lived dual fan site in fall 2001 called "MadonnaBritney" but we took it offline because of the negative response from a few of their fans).  Okay, so in Freddy's mind, he went through all of his favorites music artists. Most of them had official sites and fan sites and it wouldn't matter to anyone if he created another.   He really wanted to create a website for someone who didn't have a website and deserved one. Lil Suzy immediately came to his mind.  Being a really big fan of Lil Suzy, Freddy was constantly searching online for information in regards to Lil Suzy and only found limited information that was scattered about on various Freesytle music sites of the time.   He realized that  Lil Suzy didn't have a website to call her own and felt that she deserved one just as much as any other artist.  At that time, there were only very few Freestyle artists who had official websites, least of all fansites. Freddy talked about it with John, who was also a fan, and together they decided  to design the first incarnation of Lil Suzy's Paradise. 

We felt that Lil Suzy, and Freestyle music in general, deserved the same type of online promotion that mainstream music genres and their artists were given.  Rap music and their artists became mainstream and we felt that the Freestyle genre and their artists deserved the same type of recognition and acknowledgment.  If rap music (which was once an underground urban music genre like that of Freestyle) was now just as mainstream as pop music, why wasn't Freestyle given the same chance?  It all seemed to come down to promotion. We questioned why Freestyle wasn't acknowledged in mainstream awards shows and benefits and we felt that it just wasn't fair. We felt that by creating a fan website for Lil Suzy, it would help promote her and at the same time promote the Freestyle music genre.

The above basically captures the gist of what we wrote back in 2001 on the reason we created the site. Creating a website for Lil Suzy has definitely been a positive experience. We created a fansite where Lil Suzy fans would be able to find out where she was performing, read about her career and get the latest updates. We even created a messageboard where fans could leave her comments and she'd occasionally respond. This was years before the days of facebook, myspace and twitter comments. After we launched the site, we emailed Suzanne at her personal aol homepage at the time to let her know of our creation. When she wrote back that February, we were very excited and honored that she responded! For the first time, we'd like to share that email with you. Below is the first email Lil Suzy wrote in regards to the website in 2001. It was originally in purple fonts of course! Below that, is another email we saved from 2002. Click to enlarge.



From day one, fans immediately complimented the website and thanked us because they too had been searching for a full site on Lil Suzy.  Some fans even wrote to us thinking we knew Lil Suzy personally.  Tell her this, tell her that, some would say. At that time, we hadn't yet met her in person and we honestly never thought we would!  Like we said in last year's anniversary post, we never in our wildest dreams thought we'd eventually be buddies! That's not why we created the website for her.  Most people who create fansites for celebrities never think that they're ever going to meet the person they created the site for, least of all us.  Before we met Lil Suzy, one fan who has become one of our favorite online buddies (Hi Veronica Morales!) was even nice enough to ask Lil Suzy for an autograph for us at one of her shows in Chicago. We believe it was at the Chromium Nightclub show. Receiving that autographed photo in the mail (along with photos of the show) was a really great surprise!

Veronica snapped this pic of Lil Suzy signing an autograph for us!
Looking back, we're very glad that we created Lil Suzy's Paradise.  It has kept Lil Suzy in touch with her fans and we have also met great new friends because of it.  We remember it all started when Freddy's father gave him a new photo scanner that came with a web design software.  That free software got Freddy's web design juices flowing and that, in turn, got John's web design juices flowing as well. It was fate! The end result was Lil Suzy's Paradise, a place where fans could learn more about the freestyle diva and show their love and support for her.  The site has certainly evolved over the years. The current site is now more in the vein of a website/blog, which allows us a faster way to post updates.  Realizing that the website was reaching it's 10th Anniversary, we redesigned the look and feel of LSP last November and it's most certain not to be the last time.  No matter what the style of the website, one thing has always remained - The fans. You guys have been loyal from day one, not only to LSP, but to Lil Suzy herself.

Purple! Suzanne's favorite color was back in November!
We'd like to thank all of Lil Suzy's fans for supporting the site and Lil Suzy over the past ten years. That sounds crazy to say "ten"!  We really appreciate the support of her loyal fans and we know that she does too. It means alot to us all. We thank you all for visiting and for your kind words over the years. We also want to thank Suzanne for being the great freestyle and dance artist that she is, and also for being a down to earth friend! We are so happy that we chose you to create a website for. You have become a great friend who has been there for us and we love you! Remember to never stop reaching for the stars Suzanneee!

Here's to many more years of Suzyness! Happy New Year everyone and God Bless!

F & J (aka Freddy and John)
Webmasters

Remember 10 copies in honor
of the 10th Anniversary! ;)

P.S.  To celebrate the 10th Anniversary of Lil Suzy's Paradise, why don't you fans purchase 10 digital copies of "Dance Tonight" on itunes or amazonDo you get the "Ten" connection? That's one for every year the site has been online! We did just that when the track first came out! Or you could get 10 different Lil Suzy tracks! It's up to you! So come on... do it! Let's continue to show our support for our girl! ;)

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2 comments:

Veronica said...

Congratulations to Lil Suzy and her awesome Web Masters for LSP 10th yr anniversary! You have done a great job throughout these ten years... And yes, that pic was from Chromium Nightclub.

-Veronica

Lil Suzy's Paradise said...

Thanks Veronica!! Thank you so much for all of your support throughout the years! You're awesome!! - F & J

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