Complaints Choir

Probably everybody complains every once in a while. And even though it might feel as a relief sometimes to complain a whole lot, it's actually taking a whole lot of energy from people. This made Tellervo Kalleinen and Oliver Kochta-Kalleinen think about possibilities to do something more with this energy. In their mothertongue (Finnish), there's a word called "Valituskuoro". Translated, this means something like "complaints choir", and is used to describe a situation in which a lot of people complain simultaneously. They took this expression literally, and started an actual complaining choir.

So they set out to change the way we complain in places they were invited to as artists. Their starting point was Birmingham, England. The members of the choir - who were found through flyers and posters - turned their complaints into song with help of local musician Mike Hurley. The chorus of the song was a catchy "I want my money back!"

As the founders write on the website of the complaints choir:
As complaining is a universal phenomenon the project could be organised in any city around the world. So far, choirs have been founded in Birmingham, Helsinki, Hamburg, St. Petersburg, Poikkilaakso, Bodø, Penn State University, (some place in) Canada, Juneau, Gabriola Island, Jerusalem, Melbourne and Budapest. And more are under construction as we speak.
If you think that your town needs a complaints choir, get in touch with Tellervo and Oliver to do it yourself and start a choir.