For the Columbia Road singing service in Bethnal Green, east London, proved the power of TikTok too much. After footage of December’s first sing-off went viral, thousands flocked to ding dong in glee, forcing organizers to scrap the events fears for public safety.
The cobbled street’s Victorian charm has always drawn the crowds, but the carol service has become an extraordinary seasonal hit. The success reflects the country’s newfound enthusiasm for group singing, a trend that follows the rise of TV choirmaster Gareth Malone and the growing popularity of rock and pop choirs.
What draws people to singing, and the benefits it brings, has been the subject of research for centuries. But only in the last few decades has the evidence come together about how and why singing improves health and well-being. “This is a very emerging topic,” says Daisy Fancourt, a professor of psychobiology and epidemiology at University College London. “And in recent years there has been a real explanation of the mechanisms.”
Song has brought people together and driven social bonding since the early history of the species. In the course of human evolution, the activation of endorphins, which create a sense of contentment and peace with the world, has emerged as a primary means of bonding large communities. It turns out that singing is an incredibly powerful trigger.
“Singing is one of the mega-mechanisms we use for bonding,” said Robin Dunbar, a professor of evolutionary psychology at the University of Oxford. “Singing in the shower gives you a bit of a lift, but when you do it in community, there’s something about the synchronicity of singing that creates this massive endorphin lift.”
In a 2015 study, Dunbar and his colleagues found that strangers who sang together for an hour emerged from the sessions with an unusually close bond. “It was as if they had known each other since primary school,” he said. “And that usually doesn’t happen when you spend an hour in the company of strangers.” Singing, the researchers concluded, was the ultimate icebreaker.
But what makes singing so effective? Dunbar believes the prolonged exhalation involved in singing stresses the lungs and chest wall, triggering the release of endorphins. The effect is enhanced in choirs, and on occasions such as singing concerts, by the sense of vocal synchrony. “The effect is highly scalable,” Dunbar said. “The bigger the group, the better it works, and that doesn’t happen with any other bonding process we use.”
Evolution has also had a hand in ensuring that singing works its magic in mixed groups. It so happens that male and female voices are, on average, one full octave apart, which means that men and women can sing in sync despite having different pitches.
The mental health benefits of singing are unquestionable. Fancourt, who studies the health benefits of singing and other arts, said singing supports emotional regulation, which equips us to better cope with life’s challenges. It takes our mind off problems, gives us an outlet to vent our frustrations, and helps us build a sense of self. “That sense of identity supports you in your daily life,” Fancourt said. “When things go badly at work, you rely on other parts of life to support you. If things are going well in other domains, it supports how you cope.”
The combination of all the positive aspects has a significant impact on well-being. People who are more involved in singing have lower rates of depression and higher levels of well-being and life satisfaction than others.
Singing therapies also seem promising, at least for certain conditions. While patients with dementia may lose life memories, they often do remember the music of their youth, which means song can become a means of connection, a crucial bridge to a lost family member. Group singing sessions have also been shown to improve movement in Parkinson’s disease. Sing can promote cognitive skills too, but the evidence for that is mixed and more research is needed.
There are also physical benefits, research suggests. Studies have found singing reduces blood pressure, heart rate and stress hormones, and early work is promising on lung health and breathlessness caused by conditions such as chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and long covid.
With the Columbia Road carols on hold for the time being, the thousands eager to attend the services will have to get their fix another way. “It was so clear we had to pull it,” Heather Atkinson, the vicar at St Peter’s Bethnal Green, told the BBC. “So let’s see if we can find a way to resurrect it in a safer form.”
