‘I certainly think the Choir accurately represented what Modern Britain looks like today.’ says King Charles choir lead soloist, Sobia Bashir. Gomersal woman, Sobia Bashir, took to the stage on the 7th of May along with her choir group SongGeet and other choir ensembles from up and down the country to sing for the King.
The coronation choir was set up by choirmaster, Gareth Malone and brought over 300 choir members together to sing in front of the newly appointed King Charles and Queen Consort Camilla at the King’s coronation concert. With SongGeet being the front singers for the choir, and Sobia being the soloist, singing Emeli Sandé’s Brighter Days.
SongGeet, are the only South Asian women’s choir group in the whole of Yorkshire as a region Sobia believes ‘Us Northerners are grand folk. We’re kind, we care and we support each other. So when we see our own representation on TV on such a global platform we love it!’. The concert brought together many different groups showing off the rich cultures Britain has to offer. Sobia grew up in a supportive household who pushed her to sing, however she thought ‘As a South Asian girl I was limited by cultural norms and of course fear of failure, so I took a safe route instead.’.
SongGeet being a relatively small group has seen new members since the concert and Sobia encourages the joining of more South Asian women to the group. ‘Asian women rarely have a platform to express themselves or their views so this was a magnificent opportunity for us to show the world, we are here taking up space on this global platform and we can do this. I hope that it will encourage others to push past boundaries and explore new challenges themselves.’.
But what does life look like for the choir after the concert? ‘It’s been a rollercoaster ride for me and the rest of the choir these last few months so normality is both welcome and alien at the same time.’. SongGeet have a range of concerts coming up in the next few months including, the Women of the World festival in Bradford which starts on the 18th of May. They are then going on to perform at Sangam Festival in conjunction with Kirklees Year of Music on the 6th August at Huddersfield’s Lawrence Batley Theatre.
The coronation concert was a massive honour for the group as well as Sobia following her lifelong passion to sing, with her concluding that ‘there comes a time in everyone’s life when one realises that we’re only on this earth for a limited amount of time and if the last few years have taught us anything it’s that life is fleeting. I had the chance of a lifetime thrown at me, I would have been a fool not to grab it with both hands. It meant the world to have been chosen to sing the solo and the amount of love and encouragement I got from the whole Coronation Choir was phenomenal.’.