Dreaming of the big TV gig

“Last Choir Standing”, “Battle of the choirs”, “Clash of Choirs”, “Grand Prix der Chöre” – these choir competitions captured the TV audiences in Great Britain, Australia, the USA and Germany some years ago. Recently things have calmed down around such casting programs, but they currently seem to be revived. In 2015 the Austrian television ORF established “Die Große Chance der Chöre” (The Great Chance for Choirs), a choir competition in terms of a casting show which has been continued featuring new choirs every Friday since October 2016.

From July to September this year the great debut season of “Varsity Sing” in South Africa - host country of the World Choir Games 2018 by the way - with excellent choirs and breathtaking performances (to be watched once again here) also used terms of a casting show and hopefully has started a worldwide trend. There already first signs to be discovered:

At the end of October the first-ever national TV choir competition was held in China. 50 choirs from 21 Chinese provinces took part and were evaluated by 100 experts and judges. A sequel cannot be ruled out. Also in Germany choirs have more and more the chance to present themselves in the media and proof their skills in TV and radio shows: Klassikradio, for example, has recently called out the “Chorgipfel 2016” (“Choir Climax”) and a young choir from Hanover was voted for winners by the audience. Since the beginning of November the TV station WDR has been following with an extended version of “The Best Choir in the West”, which premiered in 2015. From regional preliminaries to the big final all performances will be broadcasted on TV.

Do you also know such choir competition in your country and maybe have already taken part? Please share your experiences with us on Facebook!