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Ashlyn Chak

As someone who started playing the piano at age two and later trained in violin and singing, Astrid Jorgensen has always had a close relationship with music. Still, something felt off.
“I’ve always been a really musical person looking for that outlet of music and creativity, but I didn’t really find it,” says the 36-year-old vocalist and conductor.
Born in Hamilton, New Zealand, to a Singaporean-Chinese mother and a father of European descent, Jorgensen emigrated to Australia as a child, settling in Brisbane.
Later, while studying for her arts degree at the University of Queensland, she specialised in aural musicianship and choral conducting in an attempt to make sense of why making music still “didn’t feel good”.

In 2017, after spending a few years working as a high school music and vocal teacher and conducting community choirs, the then 27-year-old set up Pub Choir in a Brisbane pub.
The project, for which entry to early sessions cost A$5, was born of a desire to flip the script on traditional live music events by inviting audience members – no matter how untrained, off-pitch or unmusical they may be – to perform.
Jorgensen had finally found what she had been missing: the opportunity to make music in a way that felt good.
Pub Choir steadily gained traction throughout the late 2010s and early 2020s in Australia, where Jorgensen says she now teaches “around 3,000 to 4,000 people” at every rehearsal.
But make no mistake, Pub Choir is not about formal music education – which has long been synonymous with harsh discipline and perfectionism – in fact, it is in many ways the antithesis of it.


No sheet music, no judgment
Pub Choir is about reclaiming music as a joyful form of expression accessible to all. Accordingly, there is no sheet music and no judgment, and participants need no prior musical training.
“I teach everything from zero for everyone,” Jorgensen says. “Every single person in the room, no matter your experience, has to learn something new.
“You will have to sing and learn something, but it is the easiest music lesson in the world. At the end of it, we all get to enjoy what we made together.”
Jorgensen also recommends Pub Choir to those with a musical background.
“If you’re a good singer, you get to feel really clever at the show and help people around you,” she says with a laugh. “You become a leader. It’s good if you want to feel smug.”
Taking Pub Choir global
In June 2025, Jorgensen accepted an invitation to appear on the reality TV show America’s Got Talent.
Rather than performing herself, she helped the thousands of audience members in the auditorium find sonic harmony with each other, splitting the crowd into three sections to sing Toto’s “Africa”. “It’s me saying ‘America’s got talent,’” Jorgensen says.
Although Jorgensen did not win the contest – not that she intended to – the audition clip blew up online and brought Pub Choir global recognition and opportunities to tour internationally.


In the year or so since that television appearance, Jorgensen has toured Australia and the United States extensively. In Asia, she has taken the act to Singapore and Tokyo, and will debut her show in Hong Kong, the birthplace of her maternal grandmother, on September 21.
“I’m really curious because I’ve never been to Hong Kong,” Jorgensen says. “I don’t know how people feel there. The entire show is improvised; I don’t have a script at all and can’t ever predict what is going to happen. But I have great aspirations to explore more of my own roots, to meet more friends and to see if singing feels the same everywhere.”
Jorgensen already knows that the audience’s willingness to participate in Pub Choir varies depending on gender and culture.
“I can say with confidence that it’s always more women,” she says. “Women feel really comfortable going out with their girlfriends and being kind of vulnerable. But I did notice that at the Singapore and Tokyo shows last year, there was a bigger proportion of men than I would expect in, say, Australia.
“I really love that maybe it’s not shameful to sing in Asian cultures. In Australia, the men would stand with their arms folded, and I have to really break down that stigma.”

Living in the moment
To add an element of surprise, Jorgensen does not announce beforehand which songs will feature in each of Pub Choir’s two-hour shows. There is also a strict no-phone policy.
For those eager to document their experience, there is a team, including a professional videographer, who record the sessions from the stage with a smartphone, to be shared with audience members at the end.
“It’s a better perspective,” Jorgensen says. “You don’t have to worry about taking a s*** phone video. We will do that for you so you can feel it. My favourite thing is probably that you have to look up and participate.
“The instructions are on the screen; you have to think, and there’s no time for being on your phone and taking a video.”

“For me, singing is magic – you can’t see anything, it’s just a feeling,” she says. “Only you know how to cast your spell. I can explain singing to somebody, but you have to figure out how it feels for yourself. You carry it with you all the time. It’s free.
“I think it’s time we take away the other stuff that makes us feel so judged. Who cares? It’s not illegal to sing out of tune.
“Music is a beautiful way to connect with other people. It’s not like I don’t want people to be excellent, but it doesn’t have to be everybody’s goal.”
“Pub Choir: Just Think About It World Tour”, September 21, 8pm, at Portal, 1/F, The Burrow, 212 Choi Hung Road, San Po Kong, Hong Kong. For more information, visit ticketflap.com/pubchoir.


How Astrid Jorgensen’s Pub Choir shows anyone can sing. No auditions, no judgment

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Australian vocalist and conductor Astrid Jorgensen on stage at an energetic Pub Choir performance. Photo: Pub Choir

Pub Choir founder Astrid Jorgensen (centre) gestures at the crowd during a show in Brisbane, Australia, in 2023. Photo: Pub Choir

Jorgensen founded Pub Choir in Brisbane in 2017 as a way to feel good about making music. Photo: Pub Choir

From humble beginnings in a Brisbane pub, Jorgensen’s sessions now regularly attract thousands of audience members. Photos: Pub Choir

“I teach everything from zero for everyone,” Jorgensen says. Photo: Pub Choir

One part of Jorgensen’s goal is to break down stigmas associated with singing, especially for men. Photo: Pub Choir

Jorgensen has a dedicated team to film each Pub Choir experience in a way that gives “a better perspective”. Photo: Pub Choir

Jorgensen separates her Pub Choir audience members into three different vocal ranges. Photo: Pub Choir

Fredric Mao attends the launch of the Mao Chun-fai Performing Arts Charity Foundation at the Hong Kong Arts Centre on September 3, 2026. The performing arts veteran set up the foundation to strengthen and expand Hong Kong’s theatre ecosystem – the development of which he says has been “far too slow”. Photo: Mao Chun-fai Performing Arts Charity Foundation

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Mao in a scene from the 2002 play “A Dream Like a Dream”. Photo: Fredric Mao Chun-fai

Prominent figures from Hong Kong’s cultural and arts sectors were among those who attended the launch ceremony of the Mao Chun-fai Performing Arts Charity Foundation. Photo: The Mao Chun-fai Performing Arts Charity Foundation

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From a Brisbane pub to America’s Got Talent – Australian vocalist Astrid Jorgensen shares her story ahead of her Hong Kong show


From a Brisbane pub to America’s Got Talent – Australian vocalist Astrid Jorgensen shares her story ahead of her Hong Kong show.


Music

Hong Kong

Australia

Brisbane

How Astrid Jorgensen’s Pub Choir shows anyone can sing. No auditions, no judgment

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}From a Brisbane pub to America’s Got Talent – Australian vocalist Astrid Jorgensen shares her story ahead of her Hong Kong show

From a Brisbane pub to America’s Got Talent – Australian vocalist Astrid Jorgensen shares her story ahead of her Hong Kong show