Simcoe.com article written by Brad Pritchard

The glee club at St. Paul’s Catholic Elementary School in Alliston overcame all of the challenges of COVID-19 to pull off an award-winning performance.

The club won first prize in CBC’s 2020 Canadian Music Challenge in Category 6 for junior vocal (Grades 7 to 10) for their rendition of 'Crabbuckit' by k-os.

“It was great to win, especially at this time,” said teacher John Miorin.

He said it was a bit of a logistical nightmare to record the song, due to cohorting and students being in different classes.

Since singing is not allowed to be done at the school, students had to record their parts at home and send them to Miorin, who then mixed everything together using music programs at his home recording studio.

The instrumental parts were recorded in the school, and the students recorded the video outside the school.

They started working on the song at the end of September, not long after schools reopened for in-class learning.

They had a list of Canadian artists to chose from, and he felt 'Crabbuckit' by k-os was the most upbeat of the bunch.

“I knew this group of students would be really able to jazz things up for the performance and play it up for the camera,” he said.

Musician Terra Lightfoot, who was one of the judges, noted how the kids’ attitude “really came across in their performance.” She also called the video “engaging and fun,” and “positively gleeful."