Watch David Byrne Singing David Bowie, Madonna Classics With Choir
Former Talking Heads frontman David Byrne made a surprise appearance with the Canadian collective Choir! Choir! Choir! in New York last weekend to perform a version of David Bowie's classic “Heroes” for their digital channels. You can watch it above.
The session, which took place in the lobby of the Public Theater as part of the Under the Radar Festival, went so well that the musicians also performed a cover of Madonna’s “Borderline,” which is embedded below.
Brooklyn Vegan reported that Byrne had earlier sent a message to his mailing list, saying, “I’ve sat mesmerized watching online videos of the Canadian group Choir! Choir! Choir! They somehow manage to get hundreds of strangers to sing beautifully together ….With almost no rehearsal – how do they do it? They manage to achieve lift off – that feeling of surrender when groups sing together – when we all become part of something larger than ourselves.”
Choir! Choir! Choir! began in 2011 as a community-building exercise, with creators Daveed Goldman and Nobu Adilman pulling together groups of people with little or no singing experience, rehearsing for a few hours then recording the results. The aim is to demonstrate how, with just a little effort, music can bring perfect strangers together in a sense of unity.
Byrne recently announced the March release of solo album American Utopia – his first since 2004’s Grown Backwards. After releasing a number of tour dates for what he called “the most ambitious show I've done since the shows that were filmed for Stop Making Sense,” He added a further run of dates, keeping him busy between March and August.
Watch David Byrne and Choir! Choir! Choir! Sing Madonna's "Borderline"