THE CHOIR MASTERS

Mel Giedroyc and Gareth Malone head up BBC1’s new Saturday night talent show – a search for the best singing group in the country...

She’s tasted plenty of showstoppers during six years on The Great British Bake Off, now Mel Giedroyc will be hearing them. This week she launches new Saturday night BBC1 extravaganza Pitch Battle, an upbeat sixpart competition between some of Britain’s top choirs and singing groups.

‘There’s a £50,000 prize for the winners, but it’s also about having fun and both taking and giving pleasure from singing,’ says Mel. ‘It’s a non-brutal competition: it’s about the genuine love of what the groups are doing rather than a “look at me” kind of contest.’

Tapping into the feelgood factor of hit US TV series Glee and the three huge Pitch Perfect films, which followed the fortunes of university a cappella groups, each week six choirs will be whittled down to one to go through to the live final. Their efforts will be judged by TV’s choirmaster supreme Gareth Malone, R&B singer Kelis plus a guest judge – American singer/songwriter Bebe Rexha appears on the first show, with Seal, Will Young, US actor and singer Joe Jonas and queen of funk Chaka Khan all lined up to judge in later heats. The judges also select a runner-up in each show; one of them will win a wild-card entry to the final, to be announced by the judges at the end of the last heat.

Gareth says he’s delighted by the variety as well as the quality of the groups. ‘There’s been a misconception that this show was just going to be about people singing a cappella, but actually we’ve scoured Britain and found groups singing country, gospel, opera, jazz and pop with musical accompaniment too.’

The opening show is typically eclectic. The Oxford Alternotives are an a cappella group who sing pop songs, while Alle Choir are a Polish jazz group. The 4Tune Tellers & Kimmy are a male vocal harmony quartet plus a female beat boxer. The London International Gospel Choir also features a beat boxer, Sgarmes are a cabaret-style singing group from Aberystwyth, while Songbird Sessions perform in a variety of musical styles. As Gareth explains, flexibility and versatility are key to success on the show. ‘Each group performs a showstopper, a song that typifies what they’re about, and then comes The Riff-Off – the groups are given topics to sing about, anything from “happy” to “angry break-ups”, and they have to pick songs that have that theme and then go head-to-head with a rival choir singing short bursts of them.

‘After the field is whittled down to three, each choir nominates a solo per-

Londoner best known for his 1994 hit single Kiss From A Rose. Has won ten Grammys and sold 70 million records. The 2002 Pop Idol winner has had four UK No 1 albums. American singer and co-writer of Eminem hit The Monster. Formed dance-rock group DNCE...