History
The beginning
It all started in 2007 when a group of young men from Stockholm's Music Gymnasium discovered the genre of barbershop and went to the Nordic barbershop convention to explore further. There they met international barbershop quartet champion Doug Harrington, an American back then living in Sweden, and after a few meetings and discussions Zero8 was formed. The ambition was to create a men's choir that not only performed barbershop on a high level, but also to bring that perfection of sound and showmanship element that barbershop is known for into many other genres.
Barbershop
As Zero8 was formed, many of the chorus members with a lot of experience with choral singing were very interested in the newly found barbershop style. At this point in time, a significant amount of chorus members consisted of barbershop quartets who actively competed. This had a massive influence on the early sound of Zero8.
Zero8 first participated in the Nordic Barbershop Championships (SNOBS) in 2008 and has won the gold every year since then. The same is true for the European Barbershop Championships, which is held every four years with the latest being in 2022. In 2019 Zero8 participated at the International Barbershop Championships and won a 3rd place bronze medal with an astounding score of 95,6%, the choir's best achievement in the competition to date. Former achievements at the international competition are 4th place in Portland 2012 and 5th place in Las Vegas 2014.
A new director
In 2015, versatile musician Rasmus Krigström took over directing the group. Rasmus is a director, arranger, composer, singer and international barbershop championship gold medalist in 2012 with Ringmasters.
Rediscovering classical music
In 2015, the choir started to go back to its classical roots with participation in the Rimini International Choral Competition in Italy. It was one of the proudest moments of Zero8's history when the choir first won the sub-category for folk music and then ended up winning the Grand Prix. This marked a shift in the choir's direction who has since participated in music festivals such as the European Festival of Youth Choirs Basel in Switzerland, the Moscow Easter Festival in Russia and the Karuizawa International Choral Festival in Japan, after which the choir went on a tour and had concerts all around the country.
In April 2023 Zero8 competed in the highly prestigious Gallus - Maribor International Choral Competition where Zero8 managed to win the Grand Prix in steep competition with fantastic international co-competitors. The win in Maribor qualified Zero8 to compete in the EGP final in Varna, Bulgaria where Zero8 won and gained the title of European Grand Prix 2024 Winner.