Sing London’s Story

Sing London launched in June 2007 – the world’s first all city sing-along. During the 10 day festival, more than 25,000 Londoners were united in collective song – all kinds of people singing all kinds of music in all kinds of places. From singing buses on Oxford Street to spirituals at the British Museum, active participation underpinned every Sing London event. The message was ‘sing with me’ rather than ‘listen to me’.

Sing London’s success led to Sing the Nation – a UK-wide initiative that brought collective singing to 50 BBC Big Screens / Olympic Live Sites as part of the Olympic Handover Ceremony. From Sunderland to Southampton, we worked with regional choirs to lead a series of community singing workshops that culminated in mass public singalongs of regional songs. The project was accompanied by a series of Singing Histories publications, developed in partnership with local museums, galleries and libraries.

In 2009, we worked with the artist Luke Jerram to place street pianos across London. These were painted by artists and placed in high profile places across the capital. At each piano, we staged Round the Piano events. The project engaged more than 250,000 people and generated extensive media coverage around the world, including the front pages of the Sunday Times and New York Times, BBC TV, ITV and CBS America.

Now in its sixth year, our project- Ping London- placed ping pong tables across London landmarks, from Heathrow Airport to Tate Modern. The project proved extremely popular with public and press alike and was moved to four other cities before returning to London in 2012 for the Olympic and Paralympic Games. It’s now in its sixth year and is taking place in nineteen cities!

We worked with the Royal Albert Hall on a major project – The Song Exchange – to unite older people and teenagers in shared song. The project commenced in 2012.

Sing London collaborated with councils, designers and statutory bodies to install talking rubbish bins at London landmarks later in 2011. We even worked on an exciting treasure hunt. 3000 people, 30 clues, 3 trails… all leading to one amazing party!

Talking Statues launched in August 2014, generating media coverage across the world. Talking Statues gives voice to 35 iconic statues across London and Manchester. Pass a talking statue, swipe your phone on a nearby tag and get a call back from Queen Victoria, Sherlock, or Peter Pan…

Statue Stories Chicago brings theatre to the streets and parks of Chicago. Launched in August 2015, it is funded by The Richard Driehaus Foundation.

Statues across the world are starting to talk. 15 statues have come to life in the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius, with more to follow in Berlin, Germany.