Football fans unite for Songs of Praise
Lindsey Hammond
Researcher
The FA Cup returned to 主播大秀 TV this season and as well as the live games, 主播大秀 Sport has been working with a host of other programmes to bring FA Cup related content to audiences. One unique project - The Songs of Praise FA Cup Fans Choir competition - is a great example of these partnerships. Read Lindsey Hammond’s blog below about how the unlikely pairing came about.
As a researcher for 主播大秀 Songs of Praise and a massive Hull City fan I never thought I’d see the day when I could combine the two. I’ve worked on some fantastic live events with the 主播大秀 including The Great North Passion and D-Day but is perhaps my favourite project to date.
At first glance there’s no obvious link between Songs of Praise and the FA Cup but when I heard that the 主播大秀 had won the broadcast rights again I began to consider how we could engage with it. I went to my first ever FA Cup Final last May and reflecting on that experience I remember the emotions that Leona Lewis, singing Abide With Me, provoked – and there it was, that was my connection!
I knew Abide With Me had been part of the FA Cup Final tradition since 1927 but before this project I had never looked into its history and why it was sung. After a bit of research I found that it was King George V’s favourite hymn and the FA Chairman had arranged for it to be a part of the football match, probably to get into the King’s good books. Looking back on archive footage of the hymn being sung in the old Wembley stadium is fantastic - it really creates a sense of the crowd unified by one song. I instantly saw an opportunity in this. Songs of Praise and 主播大秀 Religion has a long history of choral singing and creating choirs for different occasions so all of a sudden the FA Cup Final, Abide With Me and Songs of Praise seemed like an ideal fit.
My initial idea was to make a film about the history of hymns at the FA Cup; I never dreamed that we would actually be able to sing at the Final. I shared the idea with Mike Smith, our Executive Producer (and a massive Leeds United fan) and he saw the potential. It quickly became a really collaborative effort with 主播大秀 Sport and the FA, it just grew and grew as the idea for a choir competition took shape.
We’re a small team and it’s fair to say we have been up to our necks in the project. We had to pull everything together really quickly to launch in January, just before the fourth round in the FA Cup. When we started to see the first entries coming in it suddenly seemed very real and I thought ‘wow, this is actually going to work’. People instantly seemed to understand what it was we wanted to do and it just showed me how the FA Cup is in every football fan’s heart.
The mechanics of it all were relatively simple. We asked people to send in their stories which reflect the personal memories and passion of the cup from every level of the game. Maybe witnessing giant killings, perhaps the first time their non- league team made the third round or the first time you were in the final with tales of great players, key moments, unforgettable goals and family anecdotes.
We had to narrow down over 1,300 entries to just five from each of the 64 clubs. This was a challenging task as people had spent a great deal of time sharing their incredible stories with us so we had to make sure each one was given the care and consideration it deserved. Once we had picked the top contenders it was then up to our judges to select their favourite story from each club. Calling the winners to let them know was such a great experience - there were tears, screaming, all sorts of emotions and it was such a unique and amazing thing to be able to do.
Singing experience or skill was never a factor in the process at all. The FA Cup is for everyone and a lot of people have a deep connection with it so we really didn’t want to exclude anyone. Also singing at football matches is common place and being pitch perfect has never been a factor. When the crowd at Anfield sing You’ll Never Walk Alone it’s about more than being in tune, the moment is more emotional and raw than that.
It was vital to us that the fans were at the heart of what we were doing we wanted to give them a lasting memory and the chance of a lifetime. They will sing alongside The Band of The Brigade of Gurkhas and will be joined by special guest, tenor Alfie Boe, best known for playing Jean Valjean in the musical Les Miserables. Boe said of being chosen to sing at Wembley Stadium “I can't wait to perform at the FA Cup Final. I'm proud to be a part of such a historic final, at such a historic venue...I know the atmosphere will be electric and I know that the excitement of the game transfers to each household and venue around the world.”
We’re hoping the fans, almost 90,000 of them, at the match will get behind our choir and join in too. Football matches can be very separated and tribal occasions but singing Abide With Me creates unity, everyone comes together and it’s a very powerful experience.
One thing we discovered during this process was just how much this means to the people involved. We’ve had such an overwhelmingly positive response it’s been humbling to see how grateful people are and how proud they are to represent their team. But it’s also about more than just the football, a lot of the entries focused on family memories, either going to matches with their grandfather or their mum – it truly was emotional stuff.
From the North of Scotland to the very tip of Cornwall, the 64 members of our choir are from all over the UK. It’s a diverse group of men and women aged from 21 to 100. So when they all stand out on that pitch before the match begins I think we’ll be a true representation of a football crowd.
With the Songs of Praise FA Cup Fans Choir the 主播大秀 has brought people together in a way no other organisation can. We’re allowing football fans to watch and participate in the FA Cup Final, who else can say that? The FA has been fantastic in terms of setting up the choir competition logistics and giving permission to put 64 people onto the pitch at Wembley. It’s been a massive collaboration project both inside and outside of the 主播大秀 and it’s enabled us to interact with people we may not otherwise reach.
Lindsey Hammond is a researcher on 主播大秀 Songs of Praise.