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The choir from the London Company, Berwin Leighton Paisner almost made the finals of the “Office Choir of the Year” competition in the United Kingdom 2015 with the song “Txoria Txori” by Mikel Laboa and Joxanton Artze. Finally, the choir from another Company made it to the finals thanks to votes gathered on You Tube, but the director of the choir at the BLP, Maite Aguirre, was very satisfied with their record.  “As I am from Bilbao, it makes me very excited to have English people sing a song in Basque,” she told EuskalKultura.com. 

London, England.  In the United Kingdom it is normal to form a choir within a company to promote good relations between co-workers.  The contest Office Choir of the Year chooses the best of these annually, and this year, curiously, this choir almost made the finals singing “Txoria Txori” by Mikel Laboa /music) and Joxanton Artze (lyrics).

We learned about the event from a video on Twitter and we discovered that the person behind the song choice was Maite Aguirre from Bilbao.  “I came to London in 2008 to do a Masters and now I live and work here.  I’m a pianist and choir director, and also have a music academy,” she explains.  “In London it is pretty normal to create choirs in the work place and mine is one of those.  The members are lawyers and we practice for an hour every Monday during at noon.  I am a professional, but they aren’t.

The choir, “Legal Harmony” won last year’s competition.  This year they almost made it to the finals of the “Office Choir of the Year.” To do so, they had to submit a You Tube video and they chose “Txoria Txorri” by Mikel Laboa as their song.  “The arrangement was also done by fellow Basque, Javi Busto. Working with the home team as they say.”

It is without a doubt a mythic song that is beloved by the Basques and by anyone who hears its lyrics.  But how did the English take it?  Apparently very well, according to the video.