THE TITLE of top male voice choir at the Llangollen International Eisteddfod is staying in north Wales.

Froncysyllte Male Voice Choir took the first prize in a field of eight other choirs, beating a group from Germany and another from Penycae to the post.

Performing songs including Tom, Bonjour and Seal Lullaby, the audience rose to their feet to give the choir a standing ovation.

However, competing at Llangollen proved to be a lot of work for the choir.

In April 2017 the choir came first at the Cornwall International Choral Festival and it was this win that gave the members, including the 30 new choristers who had joined in the last two years, a taste for competing once more.

Coupled with the fact the choir first competed at Llangollen in 1948, and two founding members, Den Williams and Gren Gough, still sing with the choir today, meant that in November the choir decided to enter Llangollen.

With five pieces firmly embedded in their repertoire, the choir’s musical director Leigh Mason had a new piece by a Finnish composer in mind that she had heard sung in Llangollen. A very challenging piece with no real words, it was very rhythmical and sung in eight parts.

Leigh and her music team of Owen Roberts and Jason Ellis encourage choristers to sing out and not worry about making mistakes. Leigh often teased the choir about the piece and it became known Yoiki, Yoiki, Yoik. Time was put aside in every practise for the piece and gradually the choir got to know it and even had lots of fun learning it.

On Saturday afternoon at the Eisteddfod, the Fron gave the new piece its first public performance and the choir took to the stage with the only instructions being to 'relax, remember what you are singing about, and enjoy yourselves'.

Choir vice-chairman David Jones said: "There is something about Llangollen that brings out the best in the Fron Male Voice Choir.

"When we walked off stage there was a lot of back slapping and hand shaking. We knew that they had delivered what Leigh had wanted and the result did not matter."

Chorister Aled Jones said: "There is no better feeling for a team than when a plan comes together, you perform to the best of your ability and nothing is left on the shelf."

The Fron took to the stage that night as the only Welsh representative in the Choir of the World.

David continued: “We are delighted for Den and Gren who first competed with the Fron in 1948 but also for the new choristers who have picked up the singing baton for us. Over half the choir had never competed at Llangollen before. For two this was their début of singing in front of an audience. So no pressure.”

There will be an opportunity to see the Fron Male Voice on September 29 as they will be participating in Wrexham's Singing Street Festival and in Wrexham’s William Aston Hall on Saturday, November 17 when they have a concert with the fabulous female trio, Athena (tickets on sale now). They are in Holy Trinity Church Oswestry on December 8.

If there are any men out there who fancy giving singing a go, a warm welcome awaits you at Acrefair School, Mondays and Thursdays, 7pm - 9pm.

The choir can be contacted via their Facebook and Twitter accounts both @FronMVC