Entente Cordiale

Last Thursday the 9th of April 2009 will go down in history as one of those days to commemorate Anglo-French co-operation. Yep! The Pinkies were back in Paris, this time as the guests of our good friends Equivox, the Melo'men and Caramel Fous. We were all in town as part of a concert called Des Voix Contre le SIDA to raise funds for Les Petits Bonheur, an organization providing support for those with AIDS.

Of course, we were really excited about it: it is a rare privelege that an outside choir gets asked to this event, and even moreso that we were the headline act. Over the last few months we've been rolling our Rs int he three French songs we performed - Dirait'On, La Mer and Il Faudra Le Dire, and thanks to Johnathon's patient coaching (and vocal recordings done in the loos of the Place) we didn't mangle the language too much.

Most of us arrived by train, and I have to say that half the fun is in getting to Paris with the others. We had enough time to drop our bags with our hosts from Equivox and grab a quick bite before making our way down to the Trianon theatre for the late afternoon rehearsal. It was a blisteringly hot day and I was thankful for having packed a pair of shorts.

La Mer was supposed to be the 'secret' encore number, so it was the song we rehearsed first. Everyone was really excited and the first run through hit a few hiccoughs, but we were pretty confident.

The Pink Singers do what we do very well, which is sing with occasional movements. I am not sure we can physically do both simultaneously without breaking something. So when the concert began, I have to say that I was terribly impressed with both the Melo'men and Caramel Fous, both of which I watched from the gods. Caramel Fous is not so much a choir as a theatrical group, and they could dance in synchrony while singing, which is an achievement in itself. Sadly, my French is non-existant, and many of the jokes (evident from the hearty laughing from the French audience) were lost on me. Melo'men gave us a slight cause for a heart attack because they performed America, a song we were due to perform in the second half, albeit a different arrangement. Theirs was a medley, and they staged it flamboyantly, with a statue of liberty and a group of guys dressed like the village people. I was sitting next to Kate O, and at the end we turned to each other and asked, "Aren't they supposed to be keeping the best for the last?" We wondered how we were supposed to top that!

After the interval we gathered back stage, and it was time for Equivox to go on. Sadly, we couldn't really hear their performance from where we were in the wings, but they are always so theatrical and it was wonderful to see them in their shiny outfits. They are celebrating their 20th anniversary this year, and the Pinkies have a special place in their hearts for our counterparts in Paris.

Then it was time for us to shine! We joined Equivox on stage for a joint performance of Dirait'On, then continued by ourselves with Dies Irae from Karl Jenkins' Requiem. The audience really seemed to love it, and as the performance went on the cheers literally became more and more hysterical. By the time we got to the end of Forever Motown I was actually worried that the audience was going to rush the stage! The cynic in me wondered whether the French were just being polite, but the floor rumbling, screams and thunderous applause suggested a considerable disinhibition on their part which was too genuine to fake.

Forever Motown was our official ending song, but because we made two curtain calls, Johnathon came forward and asked them (rhetorically) whether they wanted to hear any more. So to excited cheers we performed La Mer. Well, the French really, really loved it, and I have to say that as a choir we really fed off their energy. Paris will go down as one of our best gigs in living memory. We love Paris, and we love the Parisians!