Voice in a Million
Every year many schools from around the UK participate at an event called ‘Voice In A Million’ at Wembley arena. VIAM is aimed to raise awareness of adoption and fostering, by bringing children from all backgrounds together to sing. Participating schools get the opportunity to audition their choir to perform on the stage as part of the concert.
As a school we have been taking part in VIAM since it started in 2010. However, this year, we decided to submit an audition video, and were successful! We spent some time trying to think of a suitable song we could sing, that was in keeping with the message behind VIAM of family and belonging but we’re struggling to find something that hadn’t featured in the event before. One of our Year 13 students, Cody Evans, decided to write an original song called ‘Forever This Way’. He wrote the music, lyrics and produced the backing track. The song is about how friends look out for each other and how you are shaped by the people around you. We came together for a few rehearsals learning the song and then submitted our audition video. Jo Garofalo, Creative Director of Voice in a Million, emailed Miss Cox to say that our audition was successful and that we would get to perform on the stage.
Since the email arrived, we have spent many lunchtimes rehearsing the song. Jo and her team came into school on 23rd January to lead a singing workshop with us and to make a recording of the full song. This was an amazing opportunity to showcase the skills of the students at The Malling School, and Jo was particularly impressed with the number of boys in the choir, especially for a secondary school.
On the day of VIAM, we travelled to Wembley Arena by coach. After a picnic lunch in the park, +we headed inside for a rehearsal. This was our first time walking out onto the stage at Wembley and was very daunting to begin with. We sang through the song twice, making sure that the sound team could set the levels for the microphones. We then rehearsed the rest of the songs we were singing alongside the other schools taking part.
The concert started at 7:15pm with the banner parade. We made a banner to represent our school, featuring the swan from the school logo. Cody, Ellie and Ashleigh, three of our year 13 students, got to carry the banner from the stage down through the auditorium at the start of the concert.
Jonny Meah, Heart FM DJ, was the host of the event. He announced our song as we made our way onto stage. He handed the microphone to Cody so that he could introduce his own song. With Miss Cox conducting and Mrs Bush in the choir, we performed the song to the 6000 school children and 4000 audience members, including many parents of our own students and staff members who had travelled all the way to Wembley to support us.
At the end of the concert, we then travelled back to school. It was an event that we will all remember for a very long time and really demonstrated the hard work the students had put into rehearsing.
The school choir continues to grow – we are currently working on our summer production of Mary Poppins Junior. The Music Teachers Association initiative “A Choir In Every School” is very important to address the decline in singing, especially in secondary schools. The Malling School is bucking this declining trend, with a strong core choir and singing opportunities for all.
Jo followed up the performance with an email to all participating schools, stating “Now that Voice in a Million 2026 has come to a close, we just wanted to take a moment to say once again how incredibly proud we are of every single one of you. What you achieved on that stage was nothing short of extraordinary.
But this isn’t the end… This is just the beginning. One of the most important messages we want to share with you is this:
👉 Please don’t let your choir stop now the concert is over.
The magic you created at Wembley shouldn’t be something that happens once a year. The real impact of Voice in a Million is what happens after the event—back in your schools, in your halls, in your classrooms, week in, week out.”
