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It’s late on a Thursday and light is glowing from a Uniting Church hall in Moorabbin, in Melbourne’s south-east.
Step inside and you are enveloped by more than 150 members of Pop Choir belting out a swirling chorus of the Radiohead song Creep.
Big family: A Pop Choir rehearsal in Moorabbin with (front) Darryl Moulton, with guitar, wife Sharon Stokes, with microphone, and their daughter, Piper, 7, standing in front of choir member Eleanor Chadwick.Credit: Eddie Jim
I’m a creep, I’m a weirdo. What the hell am I doing here? I don’t belong here.
Next up is Coldplay’s anthem, Viva La Vida, with its chorus section: Oh-oh-ohh-ohh-ohhhh-oh.
It’s the aural equivalent of a wave. It’s rousing enough to make the least musical person sing along.
The motto of Pop Choir is, “If you can speak, you can sing.” There are no auditions, no sheet music and members sing pop songs such as the Beatles’ Let It Be and Lady Gaga’s Poker Face.
“Our aim is to make the singers feel good but also make anyone watching feel good, and that they could be a part of it too,” says Sharon Stokes, who runs the choir with husband Darryl Moulton.
And it works: one of Pop Choir’s TikTok videos attracted over 7 million views.
The choir’s 700 members rehearse in four branches in Melbourne’s south-eastern suburbs.
On November 25, the choir will perform its biggest concert yet, at the Palais Theatre in St Kilda, along with a band and a guest singer, Jemma Rix, who has starred in musicals Wicked and Frozen.
And on Sunday, Pop Choir released its first single, Windows with Smiles, through music streaming services such as Spotify and Apple Music.
The music video(above), out on YouTube, aims to raise awareness of youth homelessness charity the Lighthouse Foundation.
The video depicts Pop Choir member Eleanor Chadwick walking alone through the CBD and reuniting with the choir outside the foundation’s Cremorne headquarters.
Chadwick said the single made her realise she is lucky to have loved ones and a roof over her head.
She suffers from anxiety and says the choir makes her feel part of a big community.
Eleanor Chadwick walks along Melbourne’s Hosier Lane in the music video for the Pop Choir single Windows With Smiles.
“For me, Pop Choir is a safe place where I can completely shut off from my brain and fully immerse myself in music.
“I can be feeling flat and exhausted after a long day, and the second we start singing, I am taken to my happy place.
“I leave full of energy and a positive mindset that carries on for my whole week.”
Moulton wrote Windows With Smiles five years ago about the comfort of coming home to his daughter, Piper, then aged two, after he sought treatment for tinnitus, or ringing in the ears.
Eleanor Chadwick (centre) joining fellow Pop Choir members at the end of the music video.
Piper, now seven, sings at the end of the single.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, when Pop Choir operated online and lost most members due to lockdowns, the Moulton-Stokes family had to move out of their Moorabbin house because they couldn’t afford rent.
Moulton lived in the adjacent studio, which the family own, for six months while Stokes and Piper stayed with relatives in Adelaide.
The choir bounced back and is now thriving.
Moulton says it appeals to “those tired and overworked professionals, stressed-out parents and people who love to belt out their favourite tune in the car, figuring they’re the next Guy Sebastian”.
Tickets to the Palais concert can be bought at Ticketek.
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