Stream It Or Skip It: ‘Choir’ on Disney+, A Docuseries Following The Big Voices And Bigger Dreams Of The Detroit Youth Choir

In the six-episode documentary series Choir (now streaming on Disney+), directed by Rudy Valdez (We Are: The Brooklyn Saints), we meet the student singers and dedicated leaders of the Detroit Youth Choir, which made a national splash with an appearance on America’s Got Talent in 2019. The DYC’s memorable performance of “Can’t Hold Us” by Macklemore and Ryan Lewis inspired co-host Terry Crews to smash that Golden Buzzer, and they ultimately took home second place. Choir follows DYC Artistic Director Anthony White in 2022, as the organization navigates change with kids graduating and the ramp-up of recruiting. Its continued goal is the same: to instill in its young participants the values of courage and commitment, and to honor themselves, their parents, their city, and their ancestors through expression and song. 

CHOIR: STREAM IT OR SKIP IT? 

Opening Shot: It’s audition day for the Detroit Youth Choir, and in the room, various talent levels mix with lots of nervousness as hopefuls try to match their pitch to a piano. “The DYC is more than a choir,” Anthony White says. “I’m about changing lives.” 

The Gist: White is our guide into the world of the DYC and Choir itself, which follows White and the nonprofit organization’s staff as they run rehearsals for their current group – kids aged 8 to 18 participate in the DYC’s three choir tiers – hold auditions for new membership, and plot the course as the choir continues to perform, locally around Detroit of course but also nationally, something they all got a taste of with the berth on AGT. All of this is more than a choir for White, because he sees the organization as something that can foster lasting lessons. “I know they’re not perfect,” he says of DYC’s kids. “But when they come in and start workin’, it might change they life.”

For young people in the choir, it’s often an opportunity to express themselves. 17-year-old Azaria, who’s been singing with the organization for almost nine years, says “performing for an audience just thrives me.” But she’s also interested in basketball, and though her mother Carmelita Flemister is herself a DYC choreographer, Choir is establishing that a reckoning is coming regarding available time and proper levels of commitment. Azaria is not alone in this, either – Ryan, another one of DYC’s senior members, gets questions from his parents and others about his dedication to choir over athletics.

“Y’all have to be disciplined enough to perfect your craft!” In Choir, look-ins on DYC rehearsals reveal what’s expected of participants as they work toward excellence, a level of quality revealed in clips from the choir’s lively performances. Some kids, like Uchechi and Kayla, seem to be searching for another gear that will propel them from choir’s “back row” to the foreground. And with new moves for the Detroit Youth Choir to make on the national stage, Anthony White will have to navigate some tough decisions over who to include in Primetime, the program’s topmost tier. Enrichment, education, competition, and ambition are all in play as Choir kicks off.

What Shows Will It Remind You Of? America’s Got Talent, where the Detroit Youth Choir took second place in 2019, is still going strong. And Netflix’s Last Chance U: Basketball , which returned for its second season in 2023, profiles the players and coaches of the East Los Angeles College Huskies. 

Our Take: It’s one thing for someone who appears in auditions for American Idol to be hit with a “too pitchy” critique from one of that singing competition’s judges. But forget about the tension of national television: what if the pitchiness is coming from inside the house? Choir makes clear the pressure aspiring participants feel from the earliest moments of the docuseries, as young people waver before Detroit Youth Choir leadership during their auditions. But the stakes aren’t any less significant later, when Anthony White and his team of directors hold “evaluations” for which existing DYC’ers will ascend to Primetime, the choir’s top tier. We’re already seeing how the program backs up its expectations with training, but also how commitment goes both ways. If an aspirant can’t put it all together on the microphone at her evaluation, leadership can usually pinpoint the exact thing she isn’t doing. 

Choir doesn’t lean on empty inspiration. DYC has a track record of dedication, of getting the best out of its kids. But that means going to work, and Choir is great about illustrating what competes with preparations and rehearsals for precedence in these kids’ lives, and how each of those journeys differ. Making it to a high-profile stage and blowing people away with beautiful singing voices and dynamic choreography is a big achievement, and Choir celebrates that. But it also respects the grind, and shows what it takes to get there.

Sex and Skin: Nothing here.

Parting Shot: Throughout Choir, White stresses that America’s Got Talent was just one big opportunity for the DYC, not the only opportunity. And in a preview of what’s to come on Choir, the announcement of another huge performance with a national profile puts unique stresses on the program and its participants.  

Sleeper Star: Uchechi and Kayla have been friends since kindergarten. Now 15 and members of DYC’s Center Stage tier, they’re both aiming for promotion to Primetime, and that means new forms of pressure. “If Kayla doesn’t move up and I move up, or if she moves up, and I don’t? That’s my nightmare…” 

Most Pilot-y Line: DYC leadership is supportive of members having outside interests, such as youth sports. But…”If you are doing that” – such as playing high school basketball, like Azaria – “you can’t possibly be going 100 percent with our organization, and that’s when I have a problem,” White says. 

Our Call: STREAM IT. Notes of inspiration abound in Choir, which presents a balanced look not only at what drives the directors of the Detroit Youth Choir, but how the young people singing with DYC handle preparation, rehearsal, and the thrill of live performance. 

Johnny Loftus (@glennganges) is an independent writer and editor living at large in Chicagoland. His work has appeared in The Village Voice, All Music Guide, Pitchfork Media, and Nicki Swift.