Does what young people sing matter for their mental health and wellbeing? In these highlights from our live conversation, Do the Songs Matter? Repertoire, Agency and Young People's Mental Health, three experienced practitioners share how they choose songs for children and young people who may be struggling.Chanté Osagiede (actor, singer, music facilitator and programme coordinator at Living Song), Jenny Trattles (music education consultant and co-lead of ABRSM Voices) and Mark Bick (community musician, trainer and former chair of Sound Sense) talk about sad songs as a safe space to feel, why "happy clappy" repertoire rarely works with teenagers, handing young people control over what they sing, respecting their musical cultures, working alongside music therapists, and letting go of our assumptions about what young people will connect with.For singing leaders, choir leaders, music teachers and anyone supporting young people's mental health.

What does it take to create spaces where young people can truly be themselves? In this special episode, we share highlights from our live webinar launching Being Seen, Being Heard,Feeling Connected , the Sing Up Foundation’s new publication on how singing and vocal work can support children and young people’s mental health.

Professor Graham Welch (UCL), Benjamin Turner (Spit Game / Rap Club UK) and Sing Up chair Katherine Zeserson explore Connection Theory, the ‘world of the edit’ that young people are navigating, why disengagement is often a survival strategy rather than apathy, and brand new research showing that what matters isn’t singing well, it’s singing together.

A conversation about youth culture, creative spaces, and the conditions that make singing genuinely transformative.

Singing has been part of human life for at least 230,000 years. Dave Camlin is a passionate believer in its power — and has spent his career exploring what that means for communities and young people.

A professor of music education at the Royal College of Music and Trinity Laban Conservatoire, a community musician, and a friend of Sing Up since the very beginning, Dave joins Baz and Celi to talk about why there's a synchronicity to singing together that goes deeper than just sound, what the research tells us about singing and trauma, and why group singing might offer something that very few other activities can: a safe way to practise connection. They also get into the challenges of reaching young people who say they don't like singing, what happens to music-making in schools when we treat it as performance rather than participation, and Dave's bigger argument — that singing together lets us experience, not just imagine, a kinder and more connected world.

Dave also shares his book Music Making and Civic Imagination and the research behind it.

Thought-provoking and wide-ranging. Find all episodes at www.singupfoundation.org