In case anyone is interested in entering, the BBC is launching a competition to find "the Nation's Favourite Choir" - it's going to be a Saturday night contest and is open to all choirs, regardless of musical style - classical, gospel, big band, barbershop etc. The details are on this web site.

Cheers, Skylark. That looks fun. Far better than the X Factor.

Our cathedral choir did the pilot for this!

And here are the winners:


(oh, come on, we'd all vote for the ABRSM Forum Multi-Coloured Choir, you know we would!)

The BBC has run several music-related programmes over the last year or two, and has also hosted a nationwide progamme of Play It Again mass music-making sessions. This choir series is the latest in what appears to be the BBC's ongoing aim to encourage music-making and I commend them for it. The programme is populist and thank goodness - if it encourages more people to want to take up singing or music-making and do for singing what "Strictly Come Dancing" has done for ballroom dancing, then good on them, I say! Musical snobbery is all very well, and I'm sure there are others who would have the same reaction as you David, but it does nothing to encourage the proverbial "man in the street", and particularly new generations, to take up any form of music, whether it's choral, opera or orchestral. Yes musical purists will wince at this event, but there is plenty of room at the other end of the spectrum for people who aren't purists, and I don't see anything wrong with that

But it's bound to play to the cameras! It's a populist programme! One of the BBC's remits is to entertain, and if it fails in that respect, then nobody will win on any front. The adjudication will no doubt be seen to be just as unfair as at music festivals, but nobody suggests that they shouldn't continue - they serve a useful purpose, as hopefully this series will. Anyone who takes it or themselves too seriously will probably be disillusioned and disappointed, but a huge number of people stand to gain something from it.


PS. I suspect that the people who win will not necessarily have the best voices from a classically trained point of view. It's billed as "the Nation's Favourite Choir" so no doubt there will be a public vote, and the public won't be listening for the nuances in the voice that trained singers or teachers would notice. The winners will probably be the most "marketable" group, and best of luck to them. It's horses for courses - it's not the choral equivalent of "BBC Young Musician of the Year", it's about entertainment. If the winning group is then made into a "celebrity group" with recording contracts, TV programmes, articles in magazines etc, then well done to them for spotting the opportunity and making the most of it! It all helps to raise the profile of singing/music-making generally, and encourage more people to take it up.

A very good post Skylark. My choir would win hands down for entertainment value over say for example the choir from Bangor Cathedral but would fail most miserably on the musicianship side. (Although they are improving by leaps and bounds!)

My school (Tiffin Boys) choir master doesn't go in for things like this unfortunately....for example, the Rock School program on channel 4 several years ago with Gene Simmons approached him asking if we'd be willing to take part in it, but he refused on the grounds of being that he didn't want to make a mockery of our school.

And even though we go on tours to gain more publicity etc, he just doesn't go in for the things which would easily make us stand out as one of the best school choirs in the country. Shame really!