History

It all started in 2007 when a group of young singers 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, he had a vision to start a new group with exceptional ambitions. The ambition was to create a 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.

When Zero8 was formed, the choral scene of Stockholm did not have much experience with the barbershop singing style at all. The schools of Stockholm focused on teaching students the classical style choir singing - this also was the case for Stockholm’s Music Gymnasium. It was something new that the singers had never experienced before, and the barbershop ways of locking and ringing chords was very exciting for the young singers. Many late nights were spent singing barbershop tags.

After some time, a significant part of the chorus members consisted of barbershop quartets who actively competed. Over the years, many Zero8 quartets have won top placements in international barbershop competitions, including the quartets Ringmasters and Lemon Squeezy winning the most prestigious quartet prize possible. The quartet culture had a massive influence on the early sound of Zero8, and it continues to this day.

As a chorus 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.

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.