Singer’s choir fight to reach TV final

2:10pm Thursday 21st August 2008

Comments (0)   Have your say »

A SINGER from Worcestershire will be battling it out this weekend for a place in the final of a BBC reality show.

Paul Humphries, aged 22, of Great Witley, is competing as part of the ACM Gospel Choir on the prime-time BBC1 show Last Choir Standing.

The show, presented by Myleene Klass and Nick Knowles, aims to find the nation’s favourite choir and has whittled the entrants down from more than 600 choirs to just four for this Saturday’s semi-final.

Mr Humphries, who on last Saturday’s show sang a solo section in the choir’s performance of Ben E King’s Stand By Me, cut his teeth singing in choirs across Worcestershire.

He was head chorister at Abberley Hall School and was also a member of the choir at the King’s School, Worcester, which he attended until 2004.

He is currently completing his degree at the Academy of Contemporary Music in Guildford, where the choir is based, and says he feels lucky to be part of this hit TV show.

“It’s been such an amazing experience,” he said. “Going from rehearsing with the choir on a Tuesday night to performing live in front of five million people on a Saturday night is so exciting.”

However, Mr Humphries is taking the pressures of the show all in his stride and says he doesn’t even feel nervous before the show. “I used to get nervous when I was younger but not now,” he said.

“When I was about 17 I used to get ill before going on stage but now I don’t have a problem. I think it’s because I have so much confidence in the choir and what we can do.”

His choir are currently joint favourites to win the competition along with Only Men Aloud, an all-male traditional choral choir from Cardiff.

The other two choirs competing for a place in the final are Ysgol Glanaethwy, from Bangor, and Revelation, a gospel choir from East London.

However Mr Humphries says he’s not thinking about the final just yet. “If we get to the final that would be the most amazing thing,” he said.

“If not, well, we’ve had a great time doing it.”

To see Mr Humphries in action go to bbc.co.uk/ lastchoirstanding or tune in to BBC1 tomorrow at 6.30pm.