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Chorus at the Castle 2026
Glorious end to our summer term with a lovely return to Framlingham Castle for a sing as the sun went down.
Picnics, friends and our special guests The Garfunkels.
…another special Pop Chorus evening!
Staysure competition winners!
I make a point of never checking my phone during choir sessions…except for today, awaiting an important email.
Travel insurer Staysure invited choirs across the nation to reimagine the tongue-in-cheek song “Where The Sun Don’t Shine” from their Big Dream advertising campaign, which challenges outdated stereotypes and celebrates the energy, ambition and optimism of modern ageing.
Our singers put their heart and soul into it, and beat hundreds of entries to take first place! Check out the genuine reaction and our winning entry in the videos alongside this post. And stay tuned with positive plans for the gobsmacking £20,000 we won.
A spokesperson for Staysure said: “As a brand, we champion the idea that there should be no limitations placed on people as they age. We have been overwhelmed by the quality of entries from across the country. As well as the joy and camaraderie that being part of a choir brings, we also recognise the many wellbeing benefits that singing can offer.”
Choir Director, Yula, from Framlingham, said: “All the finalists were brilliant, so winning this competition is fantastic news for Pop Chorus. The choir wholeheartedly embraced the Staysure song and were enthusiastic about shattering traditional perceptions of ageing. Our singers are great ambassadors for this message, because they grab opportunities with both hands, and have such a zest for life. They bring exuberance to everything they do, and it’s a privilege to lead them. The prize money will support some of our community and wellbeing singing projects and enable us to mark the choir’s 15th anniversary in 2027. I really want to celebrate our wonderful singers who make Pop Chorus such a special family to be part of.”
Radiohead ‘Creep’
What the hell are we doing here? We’re glad you asked – on the evening of Sunday 10th May 2026 we got a whole room full of weirdos together in Ipswich to create THIS!
We brought lots of Pop Chorus singers, along with friends and family, into the beautiful setting of The Church to sing a lush arrangement of Radiohead’s seminal 90s debut, ‘Creep’. Put together in just a couple of hours, and featuring the guitar skills of the fabulous Joe Faulkner. We DO belong here.
The venue looked as magical as always and the staff made us all feel extremely welcome. We look forward to the next come-and-sing!
Thanks as always to lovely Ric at Greyhound Creative for filming.
A Cappella Weekend with Deke Sharon
Yula awarded a ‘Leading Light’!
We’re beyond thrilled to join today’s Financial Times in announcing that our founder and leader Yula Andrews is among this year’s ’50 Leading Lights’ celebrating Kindness & Leadership making a positive impact to business, the economy and society.
The annual awards, run in conjunction with the University of Oxford, Saïd Business School and the Financial Times, aim to recognise and celebrate the role of kindness in successful businesses. This unique initiative celebrates 50 incredible individuals from diverse industries across the UK who are positively contributing to business and society at large.
Over 500 people are singing every week under Yula’s guidance, thousands have benefited from her work, and many lives have been transformed as a result.
Yula built Pop Chorus on a foundation of kindness, with a desire to create all-inclusive, welcoming, fun and safe environments for everyone to sing in. She developed an ethos encouraging collective responsibility for each others’ wellbeing, and its mission became “feel good singing”.
She’s vocal about the physical, mental and emotional benefits of singing, but the benefits to her choir members go far beyond the singing itself. Many have made close friends and enjoyed bucket-list experiences they’d never dreamed of: hitting the singles charts, singing at Latitude Festival and even New York’s Carnegie Hall.
Yula also runs wellbeing sessions for people living alone or with dementia and Parkinson’s, regularly works with people with Down’s Syndrome, and launched a Community Interest Company to extend this work into care homes, schools, talks and even prisons.
Within days of 2020’s COVID-19 first lockdown, Yula was running Zoom sessions online, regularly keeping over 200 participants connected, including some from overseas. She got 160 singers to remotely record themselves on mobile phones and privately produced recordings for funerals. As restrictions lifted, she got everyone singing back together outside in a sheep barn!
Read more at https://www.kindnessrules.co.uk/our-candidate/2025/
Thrilled to be ‘Make A Difference’ finalists!
We were beyond proud to be finalists in the BBC Make A Difference Awards in Suffolk last night.
Pop Chorus were highly commended in ‘The Fundraiser Award’ category, having raised £57K for local charities as part of 2024’s ‘Constellation’ year.
It was a genuine privilege to share a room with so many incredible local people who make such a difference to our Suffolk community – and congratulate Long Melford’s Project Seven on winning this year’s Fundraiser award.
#proud #community #suffolk #BBCMakeADifference
Epic ‘Chandelier’ singalong with Choir Of Man
Our team loved West End musical Choir of Man so much, we thought a few of our singers might too.
Sunday 20th July, we joined forces with Solihull’s Pop Voices choir to take over the Arts Theatre for the afternoon.
Choir of Man’s musical supervisor Jack Blume kindly came out to Ipswich and Solihull to personally teach his own arrangement of Sia’s Chandelier.
So, after enthusiastically watching the show (which one cast member described as “playing to a home crowd”), the whole auditorium joined in on a very special rendition.
This video documents the journey, and we think we’ve got something in our eye…
Chorus At The Castle 2025
Saturday 5th July we had the privilege of holding an event at the magnificent Framlingham Castle, a stone’s throw from where Pop Chorus began 12 years ago.
Over 400 people pitched up on the castle lawn, watching Framlingham’s own globally-acclaimed jazz and soul singer Polly Gibbons, accompanied by pianist Jim Watson, perform a set – before belting out our current repertoire of well-known pop songs (no formal performance…more of an open rehearsal / group choir-hug).
It was a true honour to sing together as we watched the sun set over the castle on the hill! Thanks to everyone who came and helped make it happen.
2024 highlights
Proud to wrap up another fun-packed year which also boasted our highest ever fundraising total… a whopping £57k for some very special local charities – resulting in a nomination for the BBC Make A Difference Awards for fundraiser of the year. Thanks to everyone who’s supported us.
