Battle of the Choirs is an Australia

Australia

Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...

n reality talent competition

Talent show

A talent show is an event where participants perform their talent or talents of acting, singing, dancing, acrobatics, drumming, martial arts, playing an instrument, and other activities to showcase a unique form of talent, sometimes for a reward, trophy or prize...

 that premiered on the Seven Network

Seven Network

The Seven Network is an Australian television network owned by Seven West Media Limited. It dates back to 4 November 1956, when the first stations on the VHF7 frequency were established in Melbourne and Sydney.It is currently the second largest network in the country in terms of population reach...

 on 15 June 2008. The show is hosted by David Koch, with the judging panel consisting of Jonathon Welch

Jonathon Welch

Jonathon Welch is a choral conductor and singer from Melbourne, Australia.Welch was the 2008 winner of the Australian Local Hero Awardin recognition of his work with The Choir of Hard Knocks, a choir made up of homeless and disadvantaged singers from Melbourne...

, Iva Davies

Iva Davies

Iva Davies , is the frontman for Australian electro/new wave/rock band Icehouse.-Biography:...

, Charli Delaney

Charli Delaney

Sharlene Marie Zeta Robinson, known professionally as Charli Robinson and previously as Charli Delaney is an Australian singer, actress, radio presenter and children's performer....

 and George Torbay.

The format of the show is based on an idea by Swedish

Sweden

Sweden , officially the Kingdom of Sweden , is a Nordic country on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. Sweden borders with Norway and Finland and is connected to Denmark by a bridge-tunnel across the Öresund....

 singer and chorister

Choir

A choir, chorale or chorus is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform.A body of singers who perform together as a group is called a choir or chorus...

 Caroline af Ugglas

Caroline af Ugglas

Caroline Thérese af Ugglas Liljedahl is a Swedish singer, artist and chorister.Af Ugglas participated in Melodifestivalen 2007 with "Tror på dig", written by herself along with Heinz Liljedahl and Mattias Torell...

 which has been previously adapted by many countries, most notably as Clash of the Choirs

Clash of the Choirs

Clash of the Choirs is a reality talent contest miniseries that debuted on NBC in the United States on December 17, 2007. There were four episodes scheduled in the “quick competition”...

in the United States

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

. The series involves 16 community choirs of up to 40 members from around Australia competing against each other in a knockout competition that sees them performing songs from many different musical genres. The winning choral group will receive $100,000 in prize money and a recording deal with Universal Music

Universal Music Group

Universal Music Group is an American music group, the largest of the "big four" record companies by its commanding market share and its multitude of global operations...

.

Structure

The show features 16 choirs of up to 40 members participating in the competition, with 4 choirs competing per episode for the initial Round of 16. Each of those choirs has a Top Tune and a Battle Tune which they have prepared before the competition, and part of a Surprise Medley which is revealed to them on the day.

During the show, each of the choirs presents their Top Tune to the judges, and then the Surprise Medley occurs, in which all of the choirs sing part (45 seconds) of a medley. The judges then deliberate, and send one group to the next stage of the competition, and immediately eliminate another group. After that, the two choirs remaining are left to sing their Battle Tunes, one straight after the other, and the judges decide who gets promoted to the next leg of the competition and who gets eliminated.

The stages of the competition are (in order): Round of 16 (16 choirs, 4 episodes), Quarter finals (8 choirs, 2 episodes), semi final (4 choirs, 1 episode), grand final (3 choirs, 1 episode).

Final results

The winner of the first series was the University of Newcastle

University of Newcastle, Australia

The University of Newcastle is an Australian public university that was established in 1965. The University's main and largest campus is located in Callaghan, a suburb of Newcastle in New South Wales...

 Chamber Choir. Melbourne community choir Vox Synergy battled Newcastle for the top prize singing the judges' choice of the Sarah McLachlan

Sarah McLachlan

Sarah Ann McLachlan, OC, OBC is a Canadian musician, singer and songwriter. Known for her emotional ballads and mezzo-soprano vocal range, as of 2006, she has sold over 40 million albums worldwide. McLachlan's best-selling album to date is Surfacing, for which she won two Grammy Awards and four...

 song "Angel

Angel (Sarah McLachlan song)

"Angel" is a song by Sarah McLachlan that originally appeared on her 1997 album Surfacing. As McLachlan explained on VH1 Storytellers, the song is about the Smashing Pumpkins touring keyboard player Jonathan Melvoin, who overdosed on heroin and died in 1996."Angel" was McLachlan's second top 5 hits...

" while the Newcastle Chamber Choir won with their arrangement of Queen

Queen (band)

Queen are a British rock band formed in London in 1971, originally consisting of Freddie Mercury , Brian May , John Deacon , and Roger Taylor...

's "Bicycle Race". Third finalist Harambee was eliminated after the Surprise Medley.