History & Highlights

Highlights 2024/2025

Term in progress.

Highlights 2023/2024 

September 2023 began with a big welcome to Ellen O’Mahony as musical director. Ellen brought a great range of music to the choir with highlights of the year including covers of A Soft Place to Land from Waitress, Adore You by Harry Styles and Fleetwood Mac’s The Chain. We kept some of our old favourites in the mix with an honourable mention to The Parting Glass.

Christmas 2023 brought us back to the RIA for a Christmas event followed by a host of charity gigs, including appearances at Stephen’s Green Shopping Centre for Daisy House, Sing for Simon on Grafton St., The Black Santa Appeal at St. Anne’s Church and the Mansion House Fuel Fund at the Mansion House steps on Dawson Street. 

In the spring we performed a lion king medley at ‘Animation Come Dancing’ - a fundraiser for the Jack and Jill foundation and focus Ireland. The year ended on a huge high with our own gig at The Complex in Smithfield, a sell-out show and our biggest to date. 

Highlights 2022/2023

We began our September 2022 term excited to be back fully in-person with a new musical director Julie Shanley. Julie diversified our repertoire even further adding songs including The Best of You by the Foo Fighters, Tender by Blur and a choir favourite, The Parting Glass, as covered by The Wailin’ Jennys. We had a great term and in-person rehearsals led us back to live gigs. We hosted our own Christmas concert in Old Wesley, sang at the Christmas Market at Dublin Castle and performed at a number of charity events including Sing for Simon on Grafton St., The Black Santa Appeal for St. Anne’s Church and Fundraising for the Mansion House Fuel Fund at the Mansion steps on Dawson Street. 

In February, we were invited to sing for the Royal Irish Academy at the launch of ‘Work. Life.’ by Claire O’Connell. We finished the year on a brilliant high, hosting our own concert at The Pepper Canister Church on Mount Street, and saying thanks to our second musical director Julie for leading us through a brilliant year!

Highlights 2021/2022

In September 2021, we met in person for the first time in well over a year. Under Covid guidelines, a small group of playlisters met in the Iveagh Gardens and sang some of our virtual songs in real life for the first time. It was a beautiful uplifting experience to hear our voices in harmony in real life after so long, and we were buoyed by support from other park goers who listened in to the rehearsal. As Covid restrictions began to lift slightly, we could also resume singing - fully masked up - at in-person rehearsals. New songs covered included Running Up That Hill by Kate Bush, Can't Help Falling in Love by Elvis and Everyday is a Winding Road by Sheryl Crow.

Christmas 2021 was our first year without a concert, but we still marked the occasion with a Playlist Christmas decoration for our members. In the New Year we received the news that Theo would be moving on to a new adventure in Berlin, but we finished out with a strong second term and a joyful end of Season Gig at Blackrock Park in June, saying goodbye and good luck to our first musical director Theo! 

Highlights 2020/2021 

We began our September 2020 term online, already well versed in virtual rehearsals and remote line tapes! We continued our term online, including Theo’s virtual videos and learning new material. New tunes covered included Pure Imagination from Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory, Wrecking Ball by Miley Cyrus and To Make You Feel My Love by Adele. The  virtual tea break was also here to stay. Our term ended on a high note with a virtual Christmas Concert, live streamed on YouTube in December, where friends and family joined us as we sang through our virtual repertoire.

In the New Year, as Covid continued and we remained online, we decided to shake things up a bit on the social side. In February, we ran a Zoom murder mystery event for the choir where we headed off into space to test our investigative skills! Many of us switched tea for something stronger, so the mystery is still unsolved to this day, but great craic was had! Despite a challenging year for everyone, we still ended on a high with our final virtual concert in June 2021. 

Highlights 2019/2020

September 2019 started on high after the success of our first year. With the choir growing we moved to a new home in Old Wesley RFC. Our musical journey continued with Theo at the helm and we covered more stomping tunes including Halo by Beyonce, End of the Road by Boyz II Men and Don't Feel Like Crying by Sigrid. We hosted our own Christmas concert again, this time in Old Wesley, and sang at a number of Christmas events including the LauraLynn Christmas Fundraiser and DCU’s Staff Christmas Party in the Helix.

When the Covid-19 pandemic hit in March 2020, it didn’t deter us! We swiftly moved to online Zoom rehearsals. In the beginning, we sang together to backing tracks on muted mics, but under Theo’s guidance our virtual sessions became more than a stop gap and developed into a unique experience in their own right. We continued working on new material on zoom, with everyone individually recording their line at home on their phone or laptop. Theo stitched everyone’s lines together into beautiful harmonious tracks with a series of accompanying virtual choir videos. We also kept the social side strong with virtual tea breaks and many rounds of ‘Beat the Intro’ to keep things lively! A somewhat unusual year culminated in our first very successful virtual Summer concert, live streamed on YouTube in June 2020 to friends and family.


Highlights 2018/2019

Playlist was established in September 2018 by five friends who wanted to create a singing environment open to anyone, regardless of their experience levels, to sing great songs for fun. Linda, Clodagh, Ciara, Andrew and Kelly met in Smyths pub in Ranelagh, and history was made! Our first year was off to a roaring start - we recruited Theodora Byrne as musical director and our first rehearsal was arranged for the Merrion Cricket Club in Ballsbridge. We recruited our first cohort of playlisters through word of mouth and the first rehearsal was a brilliant mix of tea, chats and beautiful harmonies. 

Highlights of the year were many. Theo brought a blend of power ballads, rock and diva songstresses to the choir with tunes such as Alone by Heart, I Wanna Know What Love Is by Foreigner, Hello by Adele, and Fix You by Coldplay. We hosted our own Christmas concert at the cricket club and performed a charity gig at Crosscare Arran Quay Christmas party. We kept the momentum going in the New Year. In March 2019 we sang “We Built This City” with Maverick Sabre on the 2FM Nicky Byrne and Jenny Greene Show. We again hosted our own summer concert - this time at Old Wesley RFC - and in the summer of 2019 we ran a series of rehearsals culminating in a really exciting finale singing on the main stage at Beatyard festival in Dun Laoghaire.