Students add COVID twist to video

Graham entry to CBC contest builds on funky hit Crabbuckit

Students from Grades 9 to 12 at Marion Graham Collegiate spent their Covid-addled autumn making a fun and funky music video for a national contest.

Under the direction of music teacher Deborah Flynn, students performed a socially-distanced rendition of the k-os song Crabbuckit. The collaborative video of the song is the school's entry into the CBC Canadian Music Class Challenge.

Flynn said she chose Crabbuckit for her students because she thought an energetic song was what they needed during the pandemic.

“It was so upbeat and so fun, and I wanted that for my students,” Flynn said. “I listened to the words of the song ... and I thought, let's twist it and make it Covid-related.”

Marion Graham's rendition of Crabbuckit was altered by Flynn and the students to be more reflective of the current pandemic-influenced isolation they were all feeling. The high-energy video features instrumentalists from the school's Grade 9 and 10 bands. Featured singers, a guitar soloist, and a rapper were all upper-year students involved in the project. Even the editor of the video, Harrison King, is an alum of the school who offered his skills.

Flynn and Marion Graham have taken part in the CBC Canadian Music Class Challenge before, but this year was a different experience. As Flynn only had her band students for a limited time, she had to teach the song to her instrumentalists and record their performance in short order.

The students will find out how they did in the contest later in December, but as far as Flynn is concerned, they'll continue to do it in the future to embrace and show off how fun music in school can be.

“We've had some COVID cases this fall, and through that I've spoken to the students about how cautious we have to be to keep what we're doing going,” she said.

“The students and myself all want to continue doing music ... we do it because we love it.”