{"id":238447,"date":"2025-07-04T21:39:10","date_gmt":"2025-07-04T21:39:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/238447\/"},"modified":"2025-07-04T21:39:10","modified_gmt":"2025-07-04T21:39:10","slug":"pure-joy-the-australian-pub-choirmaster-who-flipped-the-script-on-americas-got-talent-brisbane","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/238447\/","title":{"rendered":"Pure joy: the Australian pub choirmaster who flipped the script on America\u2019s Got Talent | Brisbane"},"content":{"rendered":"

Viewed from the outside, at least, far from united, the states of America appear irreconcilably divided.<\/p>\n

Which may explain why Astrid Jorgensen, a 35-year-old choir director from Brisbane<\/a> who honed her skills at the pub, has just toured the States to sold out shows and seen her US reality TV appearance go viral.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen I stand on the stage, I would like to prove to you that, in 90 minutes, we can agree on something,\u201d Jorgensen says.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I think that that\u2019s a really important message anywhere but, for sure, I\u2019m drawing the conclusion [that] in America \u2026 it feels like an antidote to whatever\u2019s happening in their own communities.\u201d<\/p>\n

While it might take an hour and a half in her travelling Pub Choir shows \u2013 in which she coaches the audience to sing along to pop and rock classics in harmony \u2013 Jorgensen made her point in a matter of minutes when she flipped the script of America\u2019s Got Talent in her televised appearance last month.<\/p>\n

Instead of seeking their adulation for her own vocal prowess, the former high school music teacher got her audience to stand up and sing themselves. Yes, the cameras follow Jorgensen\u2019s dynamic conduction on stage. But, for the two-minute rendition of Toto\u2019s Africa, they mainly focus on the faces of the crowd. People of all ages, genders and colours, singing their little hearts out. Bemused, at first, before exuding the kind of pure and silly joy one only experiences belting out an 80s yacht rock anthem with a bunch of mates.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf you bring some, like, cerebral, I dunno, indie thing, people are going to feel afraid and that they\u2019re going to do a bad job,\u201d Jorgensen says of her song selection. \u201cI just want people to feel like they\u2019re winning \u2013 because it\u2019s just singing. It\u2019s not that big a deal. We\u2019ve been overthinking it. Just give them a win and let them feel good.\u201d<\/p>\n

The people must have done. Cajoled by judge Simon Cowell<\/a> and by an adoring crowd, Jorgensen was voted through to the show\u2019s next round. Tens of millions of people have watched, shared and commented on the clip online.<\/p>\n

Astrid Jorgensen: \u2018I tell people to put their phones away.\u2019 Photograph: Kristina Wild<\/p>\n

Jorgensen is Zooming in from her bedroom in Brisbane, trying to keep an angry chihuahua called Penny quiet. Penny is never angry with Jorgensen \u2013 only with those who seek to steal Jorgensen away from her dog. Penny is frequently angry.<\/p>\n

Jorgensen\u2019s not long back from a hectic tour of the US. Yesterday, the ABC\u2019s Australian Story team was filming hers. Pub Choir will tour Singapore, Tokyo, the UK and Ireland in August. Jorgensen is launching her memoir, Average At Best, in September. She will tour Australia and News Zealand in October and November. Her computer pings with Slack messages from her media team.<\/p>\n

Unsure how to mute the notifications, Jorgensen takes a moment to message her handlers and kindly asks them to shush. The quiet brings oxygen back into the conversation.<\/p>\n

Jorgensen takes a similar approach to her Pub Choir shows.<\/p>\n

\u201cI try to play into, and really appeal to, an analogue experience,\u201d she says. \u201cI tell people to put their phones away. And that is really hard for a lot of people.\u201d<\/p>\n

But choir, she says, is a unique act of communion in which the audience is transformed into artists. It is a sensation she experienced growing up Catholic, something that almost convinced Jorgensen to become a nun \u2013 until she realised that the \u201cbeautiful, hopeful, optimistic, spiritual feeling\u201d that its services gave her came not from the word of God, but from the music of the church.<\/p>\n

\"RunningRunning Up That Hill: Watch Brisbane choir\u2019s rendition of Kate Bush classic \u2013 video<\/p>\n

This is an experience Jorgensen wants for her audience, but she wants them to decide for themselves how they feel about it, with their own brain, ears and eyes \u2013 not through a screen. Even after the show she asks that they keep phones in pockets.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd I think that\u2019s really freeing for people,\u201d Jorgensen says. \u201cIt\u2019s really a lovely invitation for people to just experience, just to feel anything, to feel something at the show with others and to look around, to look eyes up, look at the board, look at each other, hold someone\u2019s hand.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel like it\u2019s such a nice, rare opportunity to agree with other people just in such a low-key way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jorgensen describes singing together as a \u201cbeautiful fast track to community\u201d \u2013 something that, ironically, she alone is not part of at her own shows, standing as she does on stage. So after the final show of her US tour, at a nightclub in Honolulu, Jorgensen invited everyone in the audience to come and say hello.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople were relaying to me that this felt like the opposite of the way they\u2019d been feeling for \u2026 years even. And that it felt important for them to remind that humanity and, like, connecting on a level outside of politics is possible,\u201d she says.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s a special thing to be able to facilitate.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Viewed from the outside, at least, far from united, the states of America appear irreconcilably divided. Which may…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":238448,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3937],"tags":[77,382,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-238447","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-tv","8":"tag-entertainment","9":"tag-tv","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114797134765974559","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238447","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=238447"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/238447\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/238448"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=238447"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=238447"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=238447"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}