F*Choir – HOT CHOIR SUMMER at Moth Club Hackney

F* Choir offers a fresh, queer take on traditional choirs, delivering emotionally charged performances that respond to current political crises through song. Their recent sold-out show at Moth Club, featuring diverse and dynamic performers, highlighted their commitment to vulnerability, collective strength, and communal grieving.
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Choirs don’t get a historically good rep. It’s either an ultra religious hymnal experience, or a cheesy, over the top Glee club, so totally unaware of their cheesiness. 

F* Choir have taken a swipe at the traditional choir offering. They delivered a raw, punchy, brilliantly queer collective voice. A sold out performance at Moth Club on a Monday night, proves that this choir have got some real zeal. Touted as a manifestation of vulnerability as strength, this was the moment to release some pent up emotions about our world’s current political stage. War, displacement, unforgivable violence, are all playing out in our popular media, and F* Choir seek to forge a response to these crises in the best way that they know: song. 

Warming the crowd up was Etaf, a singer-songwriter hailing from Kuwait. A politically charged voice, Etaf was intent on telling the audience some necessary stories, and weaved powerful Arabic lyrics within their music, accompanied by folk inspired guitar. You can check out Etaf’s latest single ‘Small Details’ on Spotify.  

F* Choir began around 7 years ago, and has since expanded and grown into a thriving central ensemble of singers, all from different backgrounds in music and creativity. It’s clear from the beginning that the folks in the choir are all wonderfully dazzling, with an array of outfits, makeup, colour and costume dotting the stage. You can’t help but focus in on each performer and think about where they have come from before tonight, and what stories they think about when they sing these songs. Effortlessly led by choir leader Jenny Moore, there is a true sense of holding a collective space.

Kicking off with No1 Fan by Muna, the energy is already in the room, kicking and screaming for joy, liberation and uncompromising self. The togetherness is palpable and the excitement ebbs and flows within the crowd. There is encouragement for the audience to sing along, move, dance and bop along in whatever way feels meaningful for them, because that’s what F* Choir stands for! It stands for the joy of singing and enjoying yourself, and letting the pressure of being seen as good, scuttle away for the night. Being in this choir is not about being the next Mariah Carey, as much as that would be well-received. Their next song, written by one of the performers, and titled ‘Soft Animal’, is an emblem for this sentiment.

There is constant movement around the stage, wherein different singers take different places and do different things. It’s so engaging, seeing the performers pick up instruments like bass, drums, violin, to carry the tunes. There is an excellent sense of rhythm flowing throughout the performance, whilst also making space for the silences at the end of each song. 

One of the standout moments of this gig was the undeniable trust that Jenny put in the audience’s hands, by encouraging them to learn and sing along to a painful cry ‘I don’t know if we were meant to carry so much grief in one body’. The music swelled as the parts were accustomed to, and there’s no doubt as to the impact this had on the whole room. Collectively mourning, F* Choir held a multitude of spaces for themselves, for absent members, for lost souls.

F* Choir’s performance was a grief-tending practice. They are collectively finding ways to keep showing up when grief and sorrow feels really spiky or despairing.

Photography by Sophie le Roux

Corrections:
Whilst Soft Animal is from the poem “Wild Geese” by Mary Oliver, it was arranged by Jeni B, from F* Choir. Additionally, the grief song is One Body, and originally by Alexandra Blakely. We regret the errors.

Picture of Georgina Daniels

Georgina Daniels

Georgina is a freelance music facilitator, disability/neurodiversity justice organiser, and writer from North London. They are interested in covering all types of music performance, but prefer to prioritise grassroots, DIY and early-career artists. In their spare time, you will find Georgina in a park birdwatching, discovering new genres of music to check out, and going to lots of gigs!
Picture of Georgina Daniels

Georgina Daniels

Georgina is a freelance music facilitator, disability/neurodiversity justice organiser, and writer from North London. They are interested in covering all types of music performance, but prefer to prioritise grassroots, DIY and early-career artists. In their spare time, you will find Georgina in a park birdwatching, discovering new genres of music to check out, and going to lots of gigs!

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