Guest Blog: 'It's a Party Where Everyone's Invited' Craven Suzuki on the Joy of Participation and Community in CHOIR! CHOIR! CHOIR!

Most people don't think they can sing. Many of them are 100% correct. But is that a reason not to? Choir! Choir! Choir! co-founders and directors Daveed Goldman and Nobu Adilman (AKA DaBu) invite you to try because you just may be surprised with the results.

Forget everything you know about choral singing because Choir! Choir! Choir! is unlike any other choir you've ever attended; there are no auditions, no sheet music (AKA no practicing!), and everything happens over the course of one night - with easy-to-follow lyrics put on a screen! You get split into groups, taught your parts, and, quickly, harmony and good feelings take over.

Choir! Choir! Choir!'s repertoire is the best of pop music and the audience is the show, making it a wild and wildly unpredictable interactive experience that changes from night to night, depending on what the audience brings to the room, not to mention DaBu's unscripted impulses. One moment you're at the back of the room, the next you're having a chat on centre stage or dancing with Nobu in the aisles. The energy builds to feverish heights once everyone realises that the stakes are low and the potential for great times is high, if you just let yourself go!

Established in 2011 in Toronto, Canada, DaBu had zero idea how to run a choir so they fashioned something that made sense to them: a party where everyone is invited, ostensibly to sing but really to just have a good time. There are drinks, laughs, spontaneous dance breaks, and best of all, lots of stories (the more salacious the better!) from DaBu and the audience. There are more interruptions than a televised political debate but it's less grandstanding and more American Bandstand. It's controlled chaos but after more than a thousand sweaty shows, DaBu have developed a formula that defies the algorithm that seems to control every aspect of our lives.

Choir! Choir! Choir! is about the people who make up their audience and creating a sense of community that is often lost these days as we are subsumed under and distracted by our screens. If the pandemic lockdowns taught us anything it's that all the tech and AI won't change our need for real human interaction. All the scientific studies around group singing are true: it literally synchronises our heartbeats, it makes us listen more intently, less reactive, and leaves us with feelings of joy that are almost embarrassing to admit! Even the most sceptical or unwilling to participate people have found themselves singing along and having a great time at Choir! Choir! Choir!

In 12 years of singing in dive bars to outdoor festivals, soft-seat theatres, appearing on American Idol and beyond, Choir! Choir! Choir! has written its own script while celebrating the best of music. At times they have been joined with some of the greats like David Byrne, Patti Smith, Rick Astley, Rufus Wainwright, Colin Hay, recently the comedian and actor Patton Oswalt, and more! And they've established a foundation to leverage their collective weight and interests from their unofficial membership to shine a light and raise money for causes they believe in.

Daveed has described Choir! Choir! Choir! nights as a birthday party for the songs they sing. Music really matters to all of us in so many ways. The songs we love define our biggest life moments and as we grow, our relationship to them also changes. At a Choir! Choir! Choir! show, everyone in the room gets to do it all. Someone recently called it Drunk Church but, obviously, you don't need to drink to have a wild time. All you do is show up and DaBu will take care of the rest.

You just may feel something akin to joy which in 2023 is something we all need, pitch-perfect or not.

Choir! Choir! Choir! begins the UK tour in Birmingham on Tuesday 21 March, then Stoke on Trent, Southampton, Manchester, Oxford, Guildford, London, Brighton, Glasgow and Newcastle.

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