SASKATOON -- The Marion M. Graham Collegiate music department entered the CBC Canadian Music Class Challenge pandemic-style.
“The idea was to have a really COVID-friendly video where we conquered COVID,” said music teacher Deborah Flynn.
Flynn says that in previous years it was hard for the school to enter the contest because of conflicting concerts and performances; but because those things cannot happen this year, they took advantage of the opportunity.
“I thought this would be the perfect opportunity for us all to work together and to include as many students as we could to just come up with something fun that we could be proud of in the end,” she said.
The school's Grade 9-12 music students played instruments and sang lyrics written by Flynn. The song is about playing music during the pandemic and was made to the tune of the song “Crabbuckit” by Canadian hip hop musician k-os.
The video features a rap and guitar solo from students at home as well as a socially distanced band at the school.
Flynn says since this time has been hard for the students, she hopes this project helped ease the disappointment that students are facing this year with concerts being cancelled.
“So for me, particularly for the grade twelves, I feel like this gives them something where they have lost things. This gives them a little something to kind of put in their basket of good things that have happened for them,” said Flynn.
Flynn says the response to the video has been positive and hopes that the students will look back at this experience when things go back to normal.
