Our first ever Glee Club Final!
After months of training, workshops, rehearsals and regional competitions, the ten finalists of the Jack Petchey Glee Club Challenge 2011 hit the stage for the Grand Final. The competition was fierce and all the groups did themselves proud. However, in the end, there could only be one group crowned as ‘Glee Club 2011 Champions’!
On 20th November, friends, family and supporters gathered at the famous Savoy Theatre in London to see ten regional Glee Club winners battle it out in front of a star-studded judging panel. TV personality Graham Norton, soap star and West End performer Tamsin Outhwaite and highly esteemed Artistic Director Michael Fentiman were among the eight judges who chose the 2011 champions.
The Jack Petchey Glee Club Challenge first launched last May to find budding show choirs from across London and Essex and help them to develop their performance skills. The competition culminated with the Grand Final, an event kick-started by a fantastic performance of ‘Joyful Joyful’ from Ilford Ursuline Gospel Choir.
Throughout the evening the audience were treated to an array of show stopping acts. The Deborah Day Theatre School shined with a stripped-back acoustic version of ‘If you’re not the one’ whilst Palmers College gave X Factor contestants a run for their money with a medley of Rhianna hits. All ten groups put their own mark on modern and classic hits, and all were completely unique!
It was Fusion FBS, a group of 9 talented students from Friern Barnet School, who ultimately wowed the judges. Their energetic performances – featuring an interpretation of Whitney Houston’s ‘Wanna Dance’ and mash-up of the Baywatch theme tune – saw them steal the show and take home the winning trophy and £2,000 prize.
Fusion FSB started in 2009 and is mentored by Henry Perkins who joined the school as a music teacher only last year. He said: "We are absolutely amazed and so, so happy and excited to be winners of this wonderful event. The students have worked so hard and are so passionate about what they do. To be acknowledged for the standard they are achieving is magical.”
Congratulations to everyone who took part in Jack Petchey’s Glee Club Challenge. We have been hugely impressed by the talented young people . For all those who performed, remember - keep aiming high and whatever you do, don’t stop believin’!!
The 2011 Finalists
1st: Fusion FBS
2nd: Ilford Ursuline Gospel Choir
3rd: Cadence
Special Judges’ Award: The Denouements
W.H.S Glee
Soul Mates
Deborah Day Theatre School
The Boswells School Glee Club
Palmers College
St Ursula’s Convent Choir
“I found them amazing, self possessed and confident in a way that I could never have been at their age. Some of the presentations were so moving they made us cry.”
Graham Norton, Judge
Thank you for the opportunity to perform at this wonderful event and on such an amazing stage! We'll never forget this experience!”
Jake Aldridge, FUSION member