Pub Choir’s Astrid Jorgensen wows America’s Got Talent with ‘people power’
Astrid Jorgensen has been on a mission to teach audiences to sing popular songs together in three-part harmony, with no experience necessary – and she’s just hit the US mainstream in a major way.
For the past eight years, Astrid Jorgensen has been on a mission to teach audiences to sing popular songs together in three-part harmony, show by show, with no experience necessary – and she’s just hit the US mainstream in a major way.
As the Brisbane-based creator of Pub Choir, the former schoolteacher has evolved her style from a rough-and-ready, grassroots approach to group singing into what’s become a polished, professional touring juggernaut.
Regular readers of The Australian, where Pub Choir’s story has been told since 2018, have come to know Jorgensen as a choral colossus capable of bending beer-swilling, thousands-strong crowds to her will while ensuring everyone leaves wearing a gigantic smile.
Its success has leapt beyond our shores into international tours, yet a recent appearance on American network NBC has supercharged her profile while highlighting her rare ability to coax audiences well outside their comfort zones.
During live auditions for the 20th season of America’s Got Talent, Jorgensen appeared on stage in Chicago with a microphone, then flipped the script: rather than singing herself, she got the 1000-strong audience singing along to Toto’s 1982 song Africa.
This, naturally, is not how televised talent shows usually unfold. Yet the judges, including British music TV mogul Simon Cowell, were suitably impressed and voted her into the next round.
Speaking with The Australian on Thursday – having just returned home after a US tour, having kept her prerecorded appearance a secret until it aired in late June – Jorgensen said: “Letting go of control is something I don’t do particularly easily in life. I’m very happy with how it turned out, but there was genuine fear coursing through my veins. Seeing the response now, it’s over 70 million views on Instagram – I mean, maybe I should let go of control more often?”
Jorgensen, 35, was approached to appear on the show, which wasn’t on her radar – America’s Got Talent is aired a year behind in Australia – yet the producers’ invitation presented a quandary.
“I have been working for eight years – and before Pub Choir, every day of my life – trying to find ways to make music less competitive,” she said. “For me, it seemed like a really counterintuitive request, but the thing that changed in my own mind was thinking to myself, ‘What if I do something no one’s ever done before, and reiterate the name of the show with a different emphasis?’
“I thought it would be a nice framework shift in our brains, to just say, ‘I think the audience has talent’,” she said. “‘People power’ is the point of my show, and I saw a possibility of explaining that on that stage. That’s what made me say ‘Yes, I’d like to give that a go’.”
The results speak for themselves. While the artfully edited six-minute package elides Jorgensen’s unique manner of teaching large crowds to sing, it’s still a moving portrayal of group singing led by our choral colossus.
What next? “All I know is that the live element of the show begins in August; I can’t even watch the show, so I’m not quite sure,” she said, though noting with pride that footage of her conducting Africa appears to have quickly become the most popular reel on the show’s Instagram account.
Whatever the result, she isn’t short of things to do: Pub Choir tours Singapore, Japan, the UK and Ireland in August, then Australia from October 4.
In between those dates, she’ll publish a memoir on September 30 titled Average at Best – which is precisely what this peerless performer is not.
More Coverage
To join the conversation, please log in. Don't have an account? Register
Join the conversation, you are commenting as Logout