LABBS Convention 2025

Steel City Voices - LABBS 2025 ChampionsThis year’s national convention of the Ladies Association of British Barbershop Singers was set to be an exciting one from the outset, as we knew going into it that we would be seeing a new champion chorus for the first time in nearly 20 years. Since Signature’s win in 2006, the title has been shared between Amersham A Cappella, The Cheshire Chord Company and the White Rosettes, none of whom were competing this year.

The absence of the big three this year was a direct consequence of the affiliation agreement with the Barbershop Harmony Society that has allowed LABBS groups to compete that their International Convention. The White Rosettes made history as the first to represent LABBS on the international stage in 2025, and this July both Cheshire Chord Company and Amersham A Cappella were invited to participate.

Amersham wouldn’t have been competing this year anyway, as last year’s LABBS champions, but whilst the other two could have competed, one can see why after the huge financial, artistic, and emotional endeavour of their first international appearances, they chose to take a bit more time to regroup and process the experience.

The White Rosettes made the choice to perform on a ‘Sing for Joy’ basis, that is, without being judged. This was and interesting and actually rather lovely choice for a number of reasons, not least because this is a choice that is typically associated with choruses who don’t feel able to compete but who still want to participate. As the UK’s most consistently successful barbershop chorus, the White Rosettes clearly could have competed had they wanted to, so not doing so gave a new validation to the Sing for Joy option: it is not a signal that you aren’t good enough. And given that the Convention took place on their home patch in Yorkshire, they would have certainly been missed had they chosen not to perform at all.

But with these three choruses out of the running, the field was wide open and very hard to predict. There were a number of choruses who have won silver or bronze medals in recent LABBS contests in contention, plus others who had scored well in other conventions around Europe in the last year or so. It was easy to think of 6 or 7 groups for the top 3 spots going into the contest, and it remained hard to predict once we’d heard them all.

Steel City Voices took the gold in the end, followed by the Red Rosettes leaping into the medals for the first time with silver. In fact, the top four choruses all had scores in the 80s, and the top 19 had scores of 70 and above. And this, remember, is not including the three choruses who have historically been the most successful in the organisation. So you’d say the organisation is in as good a shape as it’s ever been.

And I think this a comment not just upon the success of an educational culture that has aimed to develop skills across the association, but also about its spirit. I have long felt that there is a deep connection between vocal health and emotional health, and that integrity of tone tells you not just about people’s technical command of their voices, but about whether they are fundamentally okay in themselves. From what we heard over the weekend, it felt as if everyone was in fact performing on a ‘Sing for Joy’ basis, even if they also chose to receive a score and contest ranking.