Complaints choir

Do you know what a complaints choir is? Neither did I until a few weeks ago when I read about it in my local paper. The town in where I live have a big music festival every year and this year they where going to have a complaints choir. Anyone could enter and me and my eldest daughter signed up at once. We both love to sing and this was a once in a lifetime opportunity since it hasn`t been done in Sweden before!

The complaints choirs all got started during a winter day walk of Tellervo Kalleinen and Oliver Kochta-Kalleinen in Helsinki. Perhaps it was due to the coldness of the day that they ended up discussing the possibility of transforming the huge energy people put into complaining into something else. Perhaps not directly into heat – but into something powerful anyway. In the Finnish vocabulary there is an expression "Valituskuoro". It means "Complaints Choir" and it is used to describe situations where a lot of people are complaining simultaneously. Kalleinen and Kochta-Kalleinen thought: "Wouldn´t it be fantastic to take this expression literally and organise a real Complaints Choir!" As complaining is a universal phenomenon the project could be organized in any city around the world. Birmingham was first and then came Helsinki and now complaints choirs have been initiated all around the globe.

The concept is the same all over the world. Community members send in their complaints and a text are made and the words put to music. Our choir was allowed only to practice 5 times and we perform on four different occasions ( and stages) during the festival. We had our grand opening Friday night– but on one of the smaller stages. Thank god! But tonight was the night! Our big moment of glory….. We where to perform on the biggest stage of the festival right in the middle of town.....




The stage! Huge! Soon I am to be standing up there were internatinal artist have been standing before me... Wow! My stomach feels like I`ve been eating butterflies for lunch… A few fans are waiting... Not for us I am sorry to say but for the artist performing after us :-)

We proudly present Malmö Complaints choir

Rock On! Me and my daugther are enjoying our moment of fame..

Even my dad had a few moments of glory when he was interviewed by the local TV station...


Part of the concept for the complaints choirs are that the performance is filmed to be put on Youtube and on the complaints choirs web site. I will let you know when it`s published so you can hear what we sounded like!


A great experience and a lovely memory for me and my daughter! Sometimes it`s fun to do something out of the ordinary. It brightens up your day!