From the chocolate-coated Melbournaires.

It was a little before Christmas but still worth telling. A unique experience was in store for 30 members of the chorus. Those who were quickest off the mark were to sing with well known "The Voice" winner Dami Im, and return home with handfuls of Cadbury chocolates, so two attractions and two incentives to get into town at the unhealthy hour of 7.45am.

Dami Im and the whole group

The original gig was for 80 singers to make a Cadbury advertisement, so apart from the Melbournaires, there were 30 members of the Melbourne Ladies Chorus, plus 20 others. These were all broken into selected octets and all took over the Origin Energy offices and sang with Dami in what turned out to be a news item rather than an ad.

Then pairs of octets, dressed in their purple T-shirts, and struggling with the rain and boxes of chocolates for the staff of the businesses they were about to invade, made their way around Melbourne by taxi and tram. Heads turned in disbelief as the appropriately named choruses, Rudolph, Blitzen, Comet, Dasher, Donner and Prancer, were seen umbrella-less tramping through puddles, cuddling up to their chocolates, and quietly humming the three carols they had rehearsed so hard to perfect.

Spirits high on a wet and miserable Melbourne summer day

Nothing if not resilient, the Melbournaires battled on, and with commiserations to those allergic to chocolate, returned home bedraggled and tired, but with booty in hand.

The episode with Dami was shown on national TV news, so some exposure, and she was a delight to work with, and lit up an otherwise gloomy day in Melbourne.

Terry Phillips