'The Edutones' from Eric Hamber Secondary School in Vancouver
Way back in March I was invited to a taping of Canada Sings, Global’s summer reality series that pits real-life workplace glee clubs against each other in a singing competition.
It was my first time attending a reality show taping (this was before So You Think You Can Dance Canada fiiiinally let me in), and it was fun to get an advanced look at what goes into making the series.
If you caught last week’s premiere of the show, which airs Wednesdays at 9 p.m., you know the premise: In each episode we follow two workplace glee clubs as they train with professional coaches before performing head-to-head in front of an audience. A panel of celebrity judges chooses a winning team at the end of each episode, who receives $10,000 to donate to the charity of their choice.
At the particular taping I attended, a group of restaurant servers/aspiring performers from the Distillery Restaurants Corp. in Toronto took on a group of teachers from Eric Hamber Secondary School in Vancouver.
The studio audience wasn’t treated to the teams’ back stories. We were, however, treated to two hours of shooting the performances and judging, which I figured at the time could only amount to half an hour of actual television max.
Each team performed their one musical number twice, in order to be covered from different camera angles. While this was time-consuming, it was also fairly entertaining, as it became clear that these people were bringing a fair bit of talent and a whole lot of heart to this project.
Without giving anything away, that’s what the celebrity panel of judges – Jann Arden, Vanilla Ice and Pierre Bouvier of Simple Plan – largely pointed out as well.
I know what you’re thinking:
1. “OMG, you were in the same room as Jann Arden?” Yes, I was. And I’m still so excited, I’ve added that tidbit to my business cards.
2. “What business does Vanilla Ice have judging a singing competition?” Not a ton, I admit. But he has a home renovation show (also confusing) on a Shaw network, so I figure he got the gig for cross-promotion purposes. Shaw’s able to spin it as “Just like these regular folk have transformed into a glee club, Vanilla Ice has gone from rapping to home renovation.” But I digress ...
Without even knowing the backstory of the participating groups, I started to get an idea of what their team’s narrative might be. Judges would single out certain contestants as “coming such a long way” and “really giving it their all.” It will be interesting to watch episode six to see how producers craft these teams’ stories – I think I know who the star will be.
While you might be quick to consider Canada Sings another American Idol wannabe to burn off in summer, I will tell you from what I experienced at the taping it did have a particularly refreshing quality to it. Participants were all in it for the fun of the performance, and you could tell they were really giving it their all. They weren’t looking for record deals and fame, but to step outside of their regular daily routines, take a risk and do something completely different.
And that’s something anyone can sit back and applaud. Just ask Vanilla Ice.
For more info, ch-check out the Canada Sings target="blank"website.