Chit Chat Gal Gets The Lowdown On Clash Of The Choirs

Chit Chat Gal Speaks With Patti LaBelle And Michael Bolton About Clash Of The Choirs

Chit Chat Gal: What makes your individual choirs unique from one – from the different choirs themselves and why do you think your choir should win?
 
Patti LaBelle: I don’t know what the other choirs sound like. I’m just praying that so the Philadelphia choir can
sing as well or better than the others. I’m praying that somebody wins. Out of the five people, somebody has to win. I heard myself on TV saying last night that I’m going to win. Now if I don’t win, it doesn’t mean that my choir are losers because they’re – they won because they were chosen to be, you know, one of the 20 choir
members.
                             
And like I said, I don’t really know what the other choirs sound like. They’re going to blow me away. I know that. But we don’t know what we all sound like. Michael hasn’t heard my choir and I haven’t heard Michael’s choir.
                              
But I know Michael has a fierce choir because Michael is a fierce man.
 
Michael Bolton: Thank you, Patti.
 
Patti LaBelle: I’m serious, honey.
 
Michael Bolton:  We have – at least, you know, from my own experience, there’s more of a love fest, you know, as far as Patti and I are concerned. I just – I love everything she does and I’ve had, you know, the blessing of singing with her.
                           
And it – instead of it turning into this rivalry – you know, I’m sure that it would play well on television to see, you know, some sort of rivalry between the choirs.
                           
It’ll probably escalate as we get to the performances and people start to really understand that there is a competition going on. And as Patti says, somebody’s got to be the – come out of this as the winner.
                             
But in a lot of ways, I feel like this is a great training ground for each and every one of the 20 choir members in my choir, that you have to compete against yourself first.
                            
You have to step up. You have to bring everything you’ve got to bring to this choir. And so they’re learning that they have to demand from themselves. Now this isn’t just like relaxing and singing along with a song on the radio.
                            
This is about stepping up, delivering so you make it to the next round and the next round, and win. And so I’m watching that part of the process happen. And we don’t hear each other’s choirs, so we don’t know what we’re up against.
                            
But, you know, it doesn’t take rocket science to figure out that Patti is going to have a serious choir going on.
 
Patti LaBelle: So are you my darling. And you know what, it’s like Kelly Rowland – she’s sort of like my daughter.
 
Michael Bolton: No, I didn’t know that.
 
Patti LaBelle: Yeah, and you’re my boy and so it’s like we’re not going to fight each other. It’s just that one of the choirs has to win.
 
Michael Bolton: That’s it.
 
Patti LaBelle: You know, I just hope it’s mine Michael.
 
Michael Bolton:
And I love you, but it’s got to be mine.
 
Patti LaBelle: Okay, Michael, this is our private little thing – this rivalry. I got to love you. Well that’s all we have to say about that question darling.
 
Chit Chat Gal: How long have the artists had with each of their choirs and how is the judging going to take place?
 
Jason Raff: No, just again, as the friendlier (gentle-ier), you know, reality show – which is not really a reality show and even the competition — just to kind of reinforce what they said — is you have this team of people, these kind of – who are not doing it for individual gain.
                            
It’s not like, you know, even on my other show America’s Got Talent, they’re playing for $1 million. In this case, you know, Michael Bolton and Patti, and their choir are playing for charities in their hometowns that are so important to all of them.
 
So I think that makes the show unique. But also, we’re not having a three panel judge like is so typical on television reality competition shows. In our show, after Michael Bolton performs with his choir or his choir performs, the other musical artists are going to make their comments.
 
So Patti and Nick, and Blake will all comment on Michael’s choir’s performance. But it would be up to the American public, you know, solely to determine who moves on in the competition based on the interactive voting.
 
Chit Chat Gal:And how long have they had to practice with their choirs? How many weeks?

 
Jason Raff: It’s been – because of the competition, we’ve had to be fairly even. So – well we did have to be even, so it’s about three weeks. It’s more in rehearsal hours, which is 40 rehearsal hours each choir will have.
 
And that took place between – in about three weeks.

Which is terrifying, I might add and I’m sure, you know, Patti and Michael in the beginning felt the same way in that, you know, Patti wasn’t able – we only had two rules on this show basically for auditions.
                             
One was they had to be over 18 and they couldn’t be a professional. So Patti and Michael could not pick their, you know, 20 best background singers. And I’m sure there’s a little bit of – I know I was a little bit terrified, you know, seeing in just three short weeks if you could – if these musical artists could take 20 strangers who, you know, never had sang professionally, never been on TV.
                             
And in three weeks, transform the into, you know, one voice that sings on live television. And to me as a TV producer, that was terrifying.