Kill singers in battle to become best choir in TG4 show

Finale Curfá’ is a brand-new exciting entertainment series for TG4, produced by Tyrone Productions and presented by Doireann Ní Ghlacáin in which we search for the best choir in Ireland! Over 10 weeks we have narrowed 18 amazing choirs down to just 3 who will now perform in the grand finale this Sunday.

Coming from The Helix in Dublin, the choirs will sing 2 songs each before we find out who will achieve the ultimate accolade of being crowned the nation’s favourite. It’s all in a bid to win the amazing prize of €5000 and the chance to sing on stage with one of the country’s biggest stars, Nathan Carter! To add to the excitement of the grand finale, our 3 choirs will also perform a song each with some of the best singers in the country; the fantastic Róisín Chambers, one of Dublin’s best exponents of sean nós singing whose music and singing has brought her around the world, Sibéal Ní Chasaide, who comes from a long line of amazing musicians and singers and who is achieving great success as a singer herself, and the legendary John Spillane, one of the greatest singers and songwriters this country has ever produced! Our choirs hail from all over the country and there are songs to suit all audiences and all tastes in this series, including traditional, choral, jazz, pop and gospel.

The 3 fantastic choirs who will battle it out in the grand finale are: The Open Arts Community Choir, The Kill Singers and OLV Gospel Choir. 

The Open Arts Community Choir is an award winning, dynamic, inclusive choir based in Belfast. The choir demonstrates how people from different cultural backgrounds, with and without disabilities, come together through the medium of song to be positive ambassadors for Northern Ireland since their founding in 2000. Having reached the final stages of the BBC’s “Last Choir Standing” in 2008 and RTÉ’s “An Cór” in 2010 they have progressed throughout the years, becoming winners in the Bangor International Choral Festival and double gold medallists in the 2017 European Choir Games in Latvia. The Open Arts Community Choir are open to sing anything and everything and their ultimate mission is to inspire and support the creativity and artistic development of disabled people. 

The Kill Singers was formed around 25 years ago by Niall McDonald in Kill, county Kildare with members coming from all over Kildare and Dublin too to sing. They are not a church choir or a classical choir. They describe themselves as a light choir and entertainment is their modus operandus. There are up to 45 in the group ranging from 20-year olds to 90-year olds, with many male members, which is often unusual for an amateur choir. They have performed all around Ireland and in Europe and sing at the K Club every Christmas to bring joy and friendship into the community. 

The OLV Gospel Choir is church choir based in Our Lady of Victories Church Glasnevin that was started back in 2007. The choir is a group of young people that sing at Sunday mass every week. They enjoy singing gospel, pop and hymns together and hope to inspire others through music. The choir is a way to express the member’s faith in a fun and supporting way . They love to perform at events and mass including carol services at Christmas and charity performances throughout the year. They love coming to mass every way and singing together to make people smile and shine a light. 

They are all united by one aim to impress our esteemed judges, Moya Brennan, Colm Ó Foghlú and Nell Ní Chróinín.

Moya Brennan is one of Ireland’s most renowned singers and musicians and has achieved global success both with her own musical endeavours as well as with her family band, Clannad, a band that came out of performances with their mother’s choir in Gaoth Dobhair in the 1980’s. In total Brennan has recorded 25 albums, and has sold over 20 million records. Moya, along with Clannad, are considered as the inventors of contemporary celtic music and are held in high esteem for their vast contribution to modernising old Irish songs. It is Moya’s haunting voice that has left the most lasting legacy, it has become synonymous with Clannad's work and with Irish music in general. She has recorded 17 albums with Clannad and has won a Grammy, a BAFTA and an Ivor Novello award with the quintet.

Composer, director, writer and producer, Colm Ó Foghlú has toured extensively throughout Australia, Europe, Asia and North America. A former Musical Director for Riverdance, he has composed, arranged and produced numerous award-winning shows and albums. As a codirector of Ember Productions he created a range of critically acclaimed performances including Stones, Bones and Beckett in the Fourknocks Neolithic Passage Tomb in Meath, Frozen Music in St. Mary’s Medieval Abbey in Dublin and Scoring the Stone, a commission from the World Archaeological Congress, Dublin 2008. In addition to his work as a composer/producer, he wrote and directed his award-winning first short film Suanscéal and also presented/arranged and was music producer on an eightpart TV series Pitch Perfect for TG4 and Good Company Productions. He also contributes scripts and composes music for RTÉ’s series Tír na nÓg.

Nell Ní Chróinín hails from Béal Átha’n Ghaorthaidh in the Múscraí Gaeltacht, Co. Cork. Nell was exposed to local singing traditions of the area from a very young age and began singing at the age of 11 under a local singing scheme Aisling Gheal, whose aim is to preserve local songs by teaching them to the younger generation, thus ensuring their preservation. As a teenager, she won prestigious sean-nós singing prizes, in particular winning in her age category at Fleadh Cheoil na hÉireann in 2005 and 2006. She was the youngest ever recipient to receive TG4’s Gradam Ceoil Traditional Singer of the Year Award in 2012 and the prestigious Corn Uí Riada award in 2014. She is currently the lead singer in the wellrenowned traditional band, Danú. Who will win the ultimate accolade of Ireland’s Best Choir, it’s time to find out. The Curfá finale will broadcast on TG4 on Sunday 17th December at 20:30.