Ah, was I excited towards the end of September: not only was I going to fly back to the UK (which is always good) but also, I was going to sing in the Royal Albert Hall! With some of my friends from Warwick Revelation (previous entry here), we were going to be part of a 3,000-strong choir, singing for charity. Here's a poster of the event:
poster for the event
And how disappointed in the concert itself I was :-( Why is that?
Well I felt cheated. Fundraising for Africa did happen, but it most certainly was not done mostly through tickets, but through the sponsorships that had to be collected to participate in this event (not even a concert): £25 per capita, times 3,000 singers makes... ooh a nice £75,000 , so that's where, in my opinion, most of the money came from. I'll keep my rant about the Oh but it's all for charity reply for the end; let's start with how the organisation worked, from the choirs' point of view.

Around the middle of term 3, the president of the choir received an invitation to come and sing in the Royal Albert Hall as part of a 3,000-strong choir; with only 40 places for our choir. I don't have the exact wording of the invitation, but it would seem that last time, some of the royalty was there - and it was a huge success. In one word, terribly exciting (especially if you know of the Royal Albert Hall).
Then, the choir leaders receive the songlist, comprising a total of eight songs on a CD plus the lyrics. No sheet music, and no indication on what parts we should sing/harmonies/...; at times the lyrics don't even fit the CD. But hey, maybe they've gone through some special effort to give us a recorded version, considering our Aims & Values state learning is to be done without sheet music (so that people without musical knowledge can learn all the same). Maybe, yeah, maybe we're the only choir without more specific info. Two rehearsals plus practice at home on the CD. Surprisingly enough, we were quite good after the second rehearsal on all the songs but a couple. Well, nevermind those two, we thought, there's always going to be the rehearsal with the rest of the choir in London, plus we shouldn't learn something we're not sure is what we should actually sing.
London, then. The Royal Albert Hall. Nice build:
outside the Royal Albert Hall
And from the inside even more impressive. And, erm, eagerly waiting to find out how the concert's going to go. Like, how are they going to fit 3,000 people on stage? Are they going to split us into two or three subchoirs? Likely, eight songs is hardly stuff for a concert. We stand sit corrected. We are sitting in audience seats, and will be singing from there. Ok, fair enough, they couldn't have fit 3,000 on stage anyway. But wait - there's more: no choir conductor (well, hardly one) throughout, and as instruction: do all the harmonies you want. That's it. That's why there was no instructions/sheet music. Everyone was in the same position. The words will be on the screen, for everyone to sing along! Fine. But how is that choir-singing and not just a massive karaoke/sing-along, I wonder?

The concert event itself was almost as much of a disappointment. Despite stunning acts, especially from football artist Dan Magness or from the DHOL foundation or from Boney M, it was, first and foremost, a display of self-satisfaction, and autocongratulation for Patti Boulay's charity work in her charity. Oh, there were a couple of stars, but from the royalty no sign, nor from Thierry Henry, or other people who were supposed to come (and this, despite the event stretching out over one hour behind schedule, they were still "late" and stuck in the airport... right). The 3,000 voices part was less than ish. The only satisfying song was How Great Thou Art, which I must confess sounded awesome; but the other ones (especially Oh Happy Day, this version is soooo wrong) were borderline bad. It is notable that two of the songs were written by Patti Boulaye (Celebrate Good News, Viva Africa, the former being especially meaningless), and that her dance company, as well as her daughter, were present. Oh, did I mention that next year is marking a pause in the charity work and a return on stage? How well timed!
Superficiality is what marked the event. I wonder how much it cost to set up (Patti's dresses were definitely haute couture, and I am far from certain all the acts performed for free). With a bit of a mention to God every now and then, without any follow-up on it. And, most shockingly, the Footballer's Wives act. Dancing (the term is strong, admittedly) to Diamonds are a girl's best friend, with real diamonds, is the pinacle of bad taste in a charity event for Africa. A quick reminder that diamond industry is bleeding Africa dry and fueling conflicts: an interesting wikipedia article on the subject.

This leads to interrogations about the charity itself. When I had been told it was fighting against AIDS/HIV in Africa, I said great and did not mind writing a cheque. But then I wondered. The website of the charity will let you make up your mind on your own, but I find it disturbing that:

  • A charity with the name of Reaching out for Africa only deals with the problem of AIDS/HIV.
  • A charity revolves so much around one single person.
  • The first clinic, if memory serves, was built in that person's village. Admittedly on land donated by her family. (not sure about that one, but it was mentioned in the event)
  • And many other hackneyed questions, like where does all the money actually go?

so that in the end, if trying to help Africa or the poorer countries, I shall not turn to this charity. There is plenty of charities working in the Third World, here's a little list:

Talking about Africa, in these days, can hardly be done without mentioning Darfur & Chad, where one of the direst refugee situation takes place. You can donate directly to this cause via Oxfam here

To finish on a lighter note, the week-end in itself was amazing, and Warwick Rev definitely were the entertainers of the Royal Albert Hall, so that the atmosphere in the beginning was awesome! (Mexican waves, random singing).