How Did it All Start?

When Finnish couple Tellervo Kalleinen and Oliver Kochta-Kalleinen, who have collaborated on a number of projects (see here), were taking a walk together one (cold) winter's day in Helsinki, they ended up discussing the possibility of creating a new medium for releasing the unending energy normally put into complaining. They admitted to complaining at lot themselves, Oliver being an 'expert', but not any more than other people. Everyone complains all the time, no matter what their life situation, and they wondered: why, and how can this change into something more positive?

One particular Finnish word, 'valituskuoro' meaning 'complaints choir', sprung to ming. In the language it is used to describe situations where a lot of people are complaining simultaneously. This led the couple to consider taking the term literally and organising a real choir for people to sing about their complaints, and so the concept was born.

With complaining being a universal human activity, the Kalleinens knew it was a concept that could be transferred to any city in the world (more on the 'open source' and participatory nature of the project), and so they offered it to various events where they were invited as artists, but it was only after Birmingham's Springhill Institute saw its potential that the first choir became a reality. This was a particularly appropriate city to start the project in, since it is known to some people as the 'arsehole of England'! Flyers and posters were distributed, and the concept was instinctively grasped by all those that joined and committed to the choir. Within two weeks, the so called 'non-singers' - perfect examples of how the project can be so inclusive - had got the song ready for performance. The surprise success of the Birmingham choir, especially as a result of YouTube, caused the couple to be invited to run the project in different cities around the globe. 

Meanwhile, it became apparent that the need for this musical outlet of complaining had grown large enough for the project to officially become 'open source'. In 2006, the Kalleinens published the '9 easy step method' for creating your own complaints choir. Since the first DIY complaints choir of Poikkilaakso was organised at a school in the outskirts of Helsinki (by a teacher who partook in the original Helsinki choir), an estimated 140 complaints choirs exist across the world as of February 2014, a number of which can be found out about here or on the official website. 

Performances of all choirs are documented by a video recording, and some have been presented together as a video installation at art exhibitions (more information on that here).