It’s an atypical delivery…since the package is nothing but a song! This month in Calais, it is possible to offer a song to a loved one, delivered to their home by a troupe of amateur choristers embarked on an artistic adventure for several months: Graines d’SMS.

“Think of jubilation, because you are airsprays of joy!“, General rehearsal at the Channel in Calais. The thirty amateur singers listen attentively to the latest advice from Cécile Thircuir, artistic director of the on-off company in charge of the Graines de SMS project, “You deliver presents, much like Santa Claus“. The troupe performs and sings “Champs Elysées” a cappella, with even more ardor.

They have been rehearsing for several months. In total, more than sixty songs to learn, voices to find, duets and trios to form. A colossal work, carried out as part of “La Fabrikka” at the Canal de Calais.

The next day, they will knock on the door of Calais residents to deliver one of these songs: an unexpected gift for the recipient, ordered by one of their relatives.

The challenge is daunting for these apprentice singers. Many of them had never sung in public before. “I was not at all comfortable with singing, my children laughed at me when they heard me sing… I wanted to explore this voice there, so I performed in the adventure“, smiles Odile.

Throughout the workshops, they learned to sing but also to transmit. “We both worked a lot on the music, but there is also a whole posture of being in front of the other, which will make us happy”explains Cécile Thircuir.

Last week a lady was a little suspicious and on the contrary some we will manage to enter their home

Marie-Claire, chorister

The singers of Graines de SMS never know how they will be received by the recipients of songs, so they prepare for all scenarios. “Last week a lady was a little suspicious and on the contrary some we will manage to enter their home“, recalls Claire-Marie, “you have to know how to manage it”.

One of the rehearsal exercises therefore consists of the delivery simulation. Stéphanie Vertray, a member of the workshop management team, plays the recipient while a trio prepares to deliver a song.

“We enter into people’s intimacy, they have to be as close as possible to their role of ‘messenger’ and therefore follow a protocol”, she says. This involves a presentation of the Graines d’SMS concept, reading the dedication, but above all knowing how to adapt to the reactions of the person opposite.

Successful exercise for the trio. ” It’s no joke. The intimate, you have to know how to manage it, the emotion, the tears, the person a little lost, you also have to know how to manage your own emotion because it is not our moment but theirs“, says Corinne.

With Graines d’SMS, apprentice singers give of themselves but they also receive a lot. “We’re going to offer something but somewhere, selfishly I’m really enjoying myself ” confess Corinne. “I needed to open up to others, with the song it’s easier to bring emotions, it freed me“, says Fabienne for her part.

On Saturday May 28, the singers will ride their bikes for a final day of deliveries in the streets of Calais. A day that is likely to be rich in emotions since it will also mark the end of the Graines d’SMS adventure for the group of amateurs.

Over the course of the workshops, strong ties were forged, they became friends, a family, gathered around a single objective, to play together the most beautiful of scores: that of happiness.

To order and offer a song to a loved one residing in Calais on Saturday May 28, click here (registration before Wednesday, May 25).