Do we have show choirs in Namibia? I know we have a huge choral culture, yes, but show choir? The Namibian choral culture consists of anything from your old school choir formation to acapella ensembles.
Show choir is an entirely different ball game.
Show choir, as defined by brainpower, are performance groups that combine choral singing with choreographed movement or dance. Sounds awfully like your normal good old school choir, right?
However, with show choir it’s a little more extravagant. Everything is more with show choir. Everything is amplified by over 200%. The key difference between your good old school choral formation and show choir is that show choir always has a theme fused with pop culture.
Good old school choral formation always seems to be religious. Not so much with show choir. Hence my question...do we have show choirs in Namibia? We should. Not everyone is as religious as one would think. And that’s not a bad thing. Namibia is a secular state after all. Plus, we are living in a new era where people who were born in 2000 are 20 years old this year. I cannot, for the life of me, see Generation Z aka Ama2000s conform to old school choral formation.
As much as I love choir and sang in choirs all my life... I will be the first to admit that the old school choral culture today is boring. Imagine re-working an old school favourite like ‘Muhona matu ku tanga’ into an elevated, well-choreographed world-class presentation. The old school one is fine...but that’s exactly the problem. It’s just fine. No 21st-century innovation.
Ama2000s, it should start with you. Your generation are the disruptors of our time and its time you disrupt the old school choral culture in Namibia. Start a show choir at your former high school or at your current college. You can sing. You can dance. You love pop culture. You have the energy, passion and time to pull this off.
If we could have at least one show choir at every major university by the middle of the year, we can host an extravagant evening of performance by the end of the year. Imagine, a show choir at every major university? Unam, IUM, Limkokwing, Nust, NIMT, College of the Arts, vocational training centres all lined up for one big show to round off the year’s activities?
Plus, a show choir has way much more commercial value compared to an old school choral formation. I’m talking gigs where corporates would pay big money. Corporates are always on the hunt for any new or different form of entertainment for their social calendar.
People would pay money to witness 10+ show choirs put on a spectacle so great it would challenge the traditional boring way of doing things. Namibians have become so unsophisticated with their pursuit of quality. So much so that we simply accept the boring tardy events that are presented to us. Keyword...BORING!
This can change with show choir. Remember the hit television show “Glee”? I challenge you to watch one episode of “Glee”. Friendly warning...you might end up binge-watching all six seasons!
Let’s stop being so damn pedestrian, let’s elevate and innovate our level of artistic expression. Show choir is the future. We have the talent in Namibia to make this a norm.
Until the next loop, we say “GMTM”!
NSK is a professional MC. For bookings, email naobebsekind@gmail.com
@naobebsekind (twitter)