Oriana Requests the Pleasure of Your Company

19 hours ago
2 min read

Oriana Choir’s first season for 2026 has commenced in right royal fashion. For nearly a month now, the Choir’s Buderim rehearsal venue has been resonating with the joyous, harmonious sounds of many of the classic songs of pop music across the decades, as Pop Royalty: A Tribute to the Kings and Queens of Popular Music is prepared for your listening pleasure.

Oriana Choir’s membership encompasses a wide range of ages, from teenagers to retirees; and an equally wide range of backgrounds and interests. One of the many lovely things about belonging to such a marvellous organisation as Oriana, is that such differences become insignificant in pursuit of a common interest, in this case the love of music and singing. With a concept like “Pop Royalty” ‘young’ people’s music becomes everyone’s music. And music that the ‘oldies’ in the choir grooved on as youngsters is taken on board by the younger ones, in an almost organic way.

“Pop Royalty” is a fitting, and entirely appropriate title for the upcoming concert series. It showcases many of the solo artistes who, over the years, have become established as icons of popular music, and whose songs have become embedded in our collective cultural DNA. They really are members of pop music’s “Royal Family”.

Some of their names and sobriquets tell the story:

Elvis Presley - the original King of Rock’n’Roll
Nat ‘King’ Cole – the one-and-only, a consummate jazz pianist with a voice like mellow coffee
Aretha Franklin – the Queen of Soul
The late artist formerly known as Prince
Lady Gaga – the ‘Princess Royal’ of pop music
Michael Jackson – the still undisputed King of Pop
Tina Turner – the Queen of Rock’n’Roll
John Farnham – Australia’s own King of Pop

A much over-used, and often misunderstood word is ‘icon’. Taken out of its original religious context, the word refers to something, or someone having importance as a symbol of a particular thing. So often the word is used these days as little more than an attention-grabbing device. But the stars featured in “Pop Royalty” truly do merit the adjective ‘iconic’. Each one of them symbolises a musical style or trend that has brought pleasure and excitement to countless millions of people. The trends and fashions may come and go, but the music endures.

It has been an ongoing joy – indeed, a true labour of love – for Oriana to learn, rehearse and prepare this wonderful repertoire of the music of our generations. It will be equally joyful for the Choir to perform it for you. The upcoming concerts will bring you a mere appetiser of the rich banquet of pop music that stretches from the 1950s to the present day. But you can be assured that it will be rich and satisfying musical fare, which will surely have you asking, as young Master Twist famously (iconically?) said, “Please sir, may I have some more?”

Pop Royalty : A Tribute to the Kings and Queens of Popular Music