This morning a few of us set out to do some promotion for our musical. An early wake-up, a quick make-up and a well thought through winter-hippie dress-up and out into the minus 6 degrees Celsius morning.

Three of us met at the central square and hopped onto the bus heading for the harbor. It was a bus almost full of people either going to work or to one of the schools on the route or heading to the morning ferries from Turku to the Åland islands and Stockholm, Sweden. A challenging first audience mostly concentrating on waking up and staying warm. And for me it was my very first public appearance as a singer.

A quick “good morning” and then we burst out into “Good Morning Starshine”. Two sopranos and I, a second bass (of a kind). Our reward was immediate. Heads popped up, smiles broke out and even some applause. Not bad for a first! Then some chit-chat with the crowd and a few more songs. The trip to the harbor is luckily not too long. We ended our first “show” with Aquarius just before getting to the final stop.

We had short break and got one soprano more into our group. She had had to first send her kid to school before her transformation into the show bizz mode. And then we headed back into central Turku. A new crowd of people on their way to work and the same response. We managed to make them happy. What more could we have hoped to achieve.

Then it was time for us too to head for our normal jobs. This we will have to do again (next Tuesday is planned). If you have not yet sung in a crowded morning bus, I can recommend it. It is worth a try if for no other reason than because it is fun.