A growing amateur choir brings joy and community to hundreds in Serbia

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BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — An amateur pop choir that started with a couple dozen singers in a small Serbian town has found unexpected success across the country. Its motto? Anyone can sing.

While community choirs are common in other countries, they are relatively rare in Serbia. The no-stress and fun approach has attracted hundreds of people, mostly women of all ages.

Modeled after similar projects abroad, the choir is encouraging “everyone from 5 to 105” to join and sing for joy and stress relief.

Since starting out in a small town in central Serbia four years ago, Pop Hor has spread to 10 towns across the Balkan country with an ambition to grow further. There are no auditions or voice tests, and newcomers don’t have to know how to read music.

“People come as total amateurs, most of them say they have no clue about singing,” said Nenad Azanjac, who trained as a music teacher and who founded Pop Hor, or Pop Choir, with his wife.

Nevenka Bila, 72, said the choir has provided a much-needed positive contrast to the everyday reality of political tensions and pro-democracy protests in the troubled Balkan country.

“In this madness that we are living, where I spend half of my free time in the streets fighting for basic human rights, I found something that feels so good for me,” Bila said. “I discovered a new world.”

The group packs halls and venues across the country weekly to belt out popular tunes — mostly in Serbian, though sometimes they also sing songs by Croatian and Bosnian bands and singers. Though amateur, the choir often performs at festivals and events in Serbia and abroad.

“I never miss a class,” said Radmila Kozarac, a 62-year-old economist. The choir has changed her life for the better, she said, adding that she has made wonderful new friends and can’t wait for their after-class chat and coffee together.

The choir has had “a very positive effect on me, psychologically,” she said. "It is joyful, it reduces stress.”

Music is known for positive neurobiological and psychological effects, psychologist and Singidunum University professor Aleksandra Djuric said. In a group, she added, “we release the energy together, cortisol (levels) come down and positive hormones rise out of union and happiness.”

“I keep telling my students that we can’t be exposed on a daily basis to information, to be bombarded by information and follow everything all the time,” Djuric said. “We need to find a space to calm down, relax and connect.”

Serbia endured years of wars, international sanctions and economic crisis in the 1990s. The country remains politically divided and struggles economically. Youth-led protests against populist President Aleksandar Vucic erupted in 2024 over a train station tragedy blamed on widespread negligence and corruption in big state-run infrastructure projects.

Azanjac said many people have joined his choir after their therapists recommended singing as an anti-stress activity. They “find a sense of belonging here, they enjoy it,” he added, describing a ”feeling of togetherness."

“Singing comes second, socializing comes first," Azanjac said.

In total, some 2,000 people have sung with Pop Hor since it started in the town of Gornji Milanovac in 2022. Azanjac said he's not stopping there.

The plan is “to have the whole region sing," he said.