There is something that both shoots an arrow directly through my heart and captures my attention when I see a full chorus or choir do their own version of a popular song. I remember watching the 1996 version of Romeo & Juliet in English class, and the scene where a choir fronted by 14-year-old Quindon Tarver performs Prince’s “When Doves Cry.” I found myself awestruck by the emotion that welled up in me, hearing the harmonies between Quindon and the choir.
From that point on, when I come across a video of a choir performing, I stop to see if it will tap into that emotional well that I discovered in that class. I found a small glimmer of it again today when a friend sent me a video of the Angel City Chorale performing a version of Toto’s “Africa.”
Toto released “Africa” in 1983, where it quickly topped the Billboard 100, stamping its place in pop music history with bold, red ink. I’m talking permanent ink as I feel like I’ll never escape this dorky 80s hit. Car commercials, nostalgic buddy pic comedies that have peppered throughout the last 40 years, travel influencer social media videos, etc. It’ll probably be the last song I hear, as I lie in bed looking out the window, contemplating how I handled my life, when some dipshit decides to drive down my street, blasting it out of his loud convertible sports car, ruining my peaceful death.
Being incredibly corny and overplayed doesn’t make it a bad song by any means, but rather a song I no longer feel like listening to on my own accord. That is, until I decided to click on the link my friend sent me and let the entire song play out.
I’d never heard of Angel City Chorale, but if there’s a massive choir on stage, I have to check them out. The video begins in silence—the conductor cues sections to rub their hands. At first, I wondered what the hell was going on, but as other sections started snapping out of rhythm, I realized they were making rain sounds, possibly mimicking African rain.
I got a kick out of it, though, as they added more and more sounds to create an entire storm building up and decrescendoing for a few minutes before starting in on the song. The song begins with the drums kicking in and the choir singing the classic main melody in a genuinely silly manner. Hearing the people voice that melody, mimicking the synth lines, just sounds funny, but that’s what these performances are about.
Once the STOMP rain intro and main melody are through, the actual song of lyrics begins, and I realize, “Oh, I forgot how I don’t like this song.” That’s all until they hit that chorus, and everyone begins to harmonize the words together. The sound of a huge group of people harmonizing is like kryptonite for your boy, as I can’t help but love it. It strikes that emotional chord in all of us who are luckily able to hear it.
It’s reminiscent of hearing the Chaka Khan song “Through the Fire” for the first time. It didn’t really grab me, outside of just being a good pop song, until I saw the video of Kanye conducting a room of people to sing the chorus for the hook to his song “Through the Wire.” Maybe it’s the melodic harmonies that cut me deep. Maybe it’s the physical and emotional harmony of the singers in those situations, working together to find that magic place where they all fit together to make a greater whole.
This version of “Africa” reignited that spark when the voices rose together, and I found I enjoyed the rest. The whole performance swells, peaks, crashes, and quietly recedes—ending with the same rainstorm sounds as at the start. I love a full circle in a song.
Moved by this, I checked out more Angel City Chorale performances—they have a trove of YouTube content. Their renditions of “True Colors” and a Beach Boys medley are strong starting points for anyone who liked their “Africa.”