With the release of her book Average at Best, Pub Choir creator Astrid Jorgensen OAM continues to bring joy to the world, one sing-along at a time. In December 2024, she shared the origin story of Pub Choir with The Weekly.
From a shy girl who loved music to the creator of the biggest live choir in the world, Astrid has helped thousands find their voice through Pub Choir. And on the way, she’s found her own. This is Astrid’s story:
How Astrid Jorgensen was drawn to music
When I was little, I used to get crippling stage fright and my voice would shake. Little Astrid Jorgensen did not believe in herself very much.
I was born in Hamilton, New Zealand, the youngest of five kids. My family moved to Brisbane in the late ’90s. My mum is from Singapore, and she wanted us to learn violin and piano, so my four brothers and I all had lessons from a very young age. I didn’t have formal singing lessons – I would cry and ask if I could stop playing violin and switch to singing, but I think my parents appreciated the tangible nature of pressing a piano key or holding a violin more than voice.
Cash was tight, so I always wondered how my parents afforded it. I found out much later that my grandmother used to send money from Singapore specifically for our lessons, so they were taken very seriously in my household.
So, I grew up thinking music was quite a chore. I only took up music as a subject in my final year of high school, and I absolutely blitzed it. But I realised then that music is very instinctual for me. I started singing lessons and became really intrigued by this instrument that we can’t touch or see, we can only feel and listen to.
There’s so much music inside me, it comes so naturally. I applied to study music at university and didn’t get in. I wasn’t a good enough performer. So, I studied to become a music teacher instead, and I tried some subjects that had nothing to do with performing, like conducting. That was a real turning point for me, discovering how to shape music with your hands and facilitate music for other people.
It was exciting to finally find my avenue in music.
Astrid Jorgensen’s life before Pub Choir
I had all sorts of jobs before I formed Pub Choir. I tried teaching, but it wasn’t right for me. So, I worked as a medical receptionist, a boarding house supervisor, at a movie theatre and a sheet store, and I was a funeral singer for many years.
I found it nourishing to use my voice as a service to people.
Then I spent a year in Townsville and became the conductor of a whole-school choir. I was really nervous, but I managed to get this whole school of teenage girls singing in harmony together in the first rehearsal. This unlocked something in me. I thought, this is what music is supposed to be – everyone is invited and everyone is capable of contributing something. This was the seed of the idea for Pub Choir.
The first Pub Choir event
In 2017, I convinced a small bar in Brisbane to let me get a bunch of people together to sing one song all night. I taught Slice of Heaven by Dave Dobbyn to a crowd of about 70, half of them friends whom I bullied into coming. I didn’t hand out any sheet music, and I didn’t single anyone out; it was very communal. We rehearsed for a while, and then we sang, and it felt triumphant and magical.
Pub Choir has since grown into a huge musical event, with tours around Australia, New Zealand, the US, UK and Ireland. I’m very proud of creating Pub Choir, but it’s not about me; it’s about community.
Singing in a choir gives you an experience you cannot have alone. You use your body and connect with the people around you – what a good thing to feel!
I’m trying to convince people that you are good enough. I want people to feel like their voice is valuable.
It’s a powerful transformation for the audience when they realise they’re not just watching, they are the show.
Creating connection through music
The show is a group effort – with the audience and also with my colleagues, who are clever, motivated and kind. I work with a talented cast of female guitarists and it’s a conscious choice to create stages full of incredible feminine power. I just want to champion women everywhere I go.
The first hour of the show is teaching, phrase by phrase. There are usually plenty of mistakes and laughs. Then we have an interval, and there’s always fear and doubt in the room – the audience do not yet believe that it will work.
It’s only in the last 10 minutes of the show that the song comes together. When it finally happens, euphoria sweeps across the room as we arrive at the destination together. It’s so joyful.
One of the most moving moments was when a woman in her 60s came up to me after a show in Denver in the US, held both my hands and said, “This is the best night of my life.” I don’t quite know what to do with feedback that big, it’s incredible.
I’m so honoured to be able to remind people that we all deserve music and we’re capable of sharing it. I feel very lucky to witness people celebrating what we can make together.
How Astrid evolved Pub Choir during COVID
COVID was a real plot twist. We had to cancel all our live shows and fly home from an American tour. My entire life’s work crumbled on the flight home. But I wondered if there was a way we could synchronise people’s singing via online video.
So, Pub Choir became Couch Choir during COVID.
I created online guides for each song in different parts, and we had thousands of people – from every continent in the world except Antarctica – send in videos of themselves singing. Then my crew and I synchronised the videos and pieced it all together. The results were just heart-lifting. We invited people to connect, and particularly at that time, it felt really special to share that.
The messages people sent in were powerful. People told us Couch Choir gave them a sense of purpose and joy.
“Music exists for everyone”
Pub Choir is usually a show for adults, but kids got involved with Couch Choir. We got videos from people who wanted to be part of it non-verbally, by dancing, clapping, banging a drum or bopping their heads.
We also started getting videos of people using sign language, and that was a real watershed moment for me. I realised that music exists for everyone, even when you can’t hear it. Now sign language is a part of every show in Australia. We have a great Auslan interpreter, and I’ve completed a Diploma of Auslan, because I really want to have an authentic connection.
This Christmas, my whole family will be coming together in Brisbane for the first time in a decade. They’re all coming to my Christmas show, which is always my biggest show of the year. It’s an annual charity event to raise money for Women’s Legal Service Queensland, which I’m really proud of.
I’m looking forward to taking a bow at the Christmas show and then having a little break.
I’m still a very self-critical person, and I think many women are. I wonder if I’m good enough, if what I’m doing is crazy. But as soon as I get on stage, that feeling goes away. It’s like my body knows what to do; it gives me the opportunity to trust myself and be free. I think everyone at the show chips away at a little bit of self-doubt, and it’s been important for me, too.
I think nervous Little Astrid Jorgensen would be gobsmacked to see me living such an outwardly confident life.
Big Astrid Jorgensen is proud of Little Astrid Jorgensen. I’m having the best time, making music with people and feeling like we’re all connected.
Read the memoir by Pub Choir’s Astrid Jorgensen
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Average at Best by Astrid Jorgensen
A memoir from the creator of Pub Choir
Average at Best is a powerful, funny, and honest memoir about embracing mediocrity. As the creator of Pub Choir, Astrid Jorgensen takes you behind the curtain. She’s performed around the world, rubbed shoulders with Prime Ministers and celebrities, and has taught hundreds of thousands of people to come together in harmony.
An imperfect perfectionist’s account of how all of it counts in the end.
Available at:
This article originally appeared in the December 2024 issue of The Australian Women’s Weekly. Subscribe so you never miss an issue.
As told to Phoebe Hartley.
