World-famous elementary school chorus! Wow!

[Selvan]

Behold Staten Island's 5th grade chorus of public school 22 (PS22)...

This is a bunch of 70 regular 5th graders from Staten Island (one of New York's lesser fortunate neighborhoods). The kids rose to world-wide fame when their teacher Mr."B" Gregg Breinberg started posting clips of their performances on YouTube. Remember: These kids are 10 or 11 years old.

Here are just a few examples...
Keane - Everybody's Changing (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HOfXytNKwxY)
Coldplay - Viva la Vida (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_tcE4rWovI)
Lady GaGa - Just Dance (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h0FPZolbYns)
and last year's final song
The Cure - Pictures of you (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pxZX8LpFOKo)
and there are many, many more

The current 5th graders have been singing together for just about a month and they have already performed at a ceremony for Beyonce and Lady GaGa.
This song was posted yesterday.
Jay-Z, Rihanna & Kanye West - Run this Town (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U-upCBD3h9E)

[Mr. Mud]

For elementary school kids, they're got some pipes. :smallbiggrin:

[Klose_the_Sith]

I refuse to watch out of song choice, but it's good to see kids not rolling over and letting people with less talent then them take all the spotlight for those songs :smallamused: (<-- Not serious)

[Selvan]

I refuse to watch out of song choice
Haha, okay. :smallsmile: Just for you: Here are some more sophisticated songs...
Björk - Jóga (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OKPC-T3jjRg)
Journey - Don't stop believin' (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u5vrtZKvxWM)
Fleetwood Mac - Landslide (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f2p5augniQA)
Tori Amos - 1000 Oceans (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ws1D_2IfezI&feature=related)

[Trai]

Um, wow. "Just Dance" is a song about how she's too drunk to function. How the heck is that appropriate for fifth graders to sing? Bad, bad choice by the teacher who's running it.

[quicker_comment]

It's a fluffy pop song, the sort of stuff many fifth graders listen to.

Part of why they're getting enthusiastic about this is probably that they're getting to sing contemporary popular music (possibly they have a hand in choosing the songs themselves?) instead of the bland selection usually deemed "appropriate" for schoolkids.

[_Zoot_]

They really can sing, thats extremely impressive, i normaly don't believe that kids that young can sit still... :smallwink:

[zyphyr]

Um, wow. "Just Dance" is a song about how she's too drunk to function. How the heck is that appropriate for fifth graders to sing? Bad, bad choice by the teacher who's running it.

You can divide the 5th graders into two groups.
Group 1 : The ones who aren't going to catch on to what it is about.
Group 2 : The ones who will.

Group 1 isn't going to be in any way corrupted by it.
Group 2 is probably already familiar with the song, so any potential damage is already done.

The song isn't exactly some obscure niche thing that they would have to go out of their way to find.

[daggaz]

Um, wow. "Just Dance" is a song about how she's too drunk to function. How the heck is that appropriate for fifth graders to sing? Bad, bad choice by the teacher who's running it.

Jump to conclusions much? How do you know the teacher didnt have a discussion with the students on precisely that topic, and the moral and ethical ramifications thereof? Would make a good example in that case.

And then they sing it afterwards, cuz you know... it is a music class, and ultimately its going to be focused on the acoustical art.

[Trai]

Jump to conclusions much? How do you know the teacher didnt have a discussion with the students on precisely that topic, and the moral and ethical ramifications thereof? Would make a good example in that case.

And then they sing it afterwards, cuz you know... it is a music class, and ultimately its going to be focused on the acoustical art.

I was in a chorus for six years-- elementary, middle, and high school. We generally did not get to choose what we wanted to sing. If we did, it was out of choices our choral director had already picked and that we got to vote on. I doubt a chorus that young would be allowed to pick their own songs, world-famous or not. Frankly, I'm surprised their parents or the administration have no objections.

[Selvan]

Um, wow. "Just Dance" is a song about how she's too drunk to function. How the heck is that appropriate for fifth graders to sing? Bad, bad choice by the teacher who's running it.
You are not the first person to be concerned about the mental health of the kids. But rest easy. The lyrics have been changed (as you might have noticed if you listened more closely) to be kid-friendly. The song now is about partying and dancing "a little bit too much". No big deal.

The song was a request by Perez Hilton, who asked for a lady Gaga song, and the teacher was very well aware that this might cause some problems. Any accusations of carelessness or negligence on the teacher's part are therefore unfounded.

PS: Just read the video description:

So when I found out he wanted a Lady Gaga song, I was a little petrified! I honestly didn't know if we could pull something like that off. But the kids were asking for Lady Gaga themselves, so I put it on them to rewrite some of the lyrics to "Just Dance" to make it something that would be okay for school. And with just a little lyrical tweaking on their part, they totally recreated this song.

(sorry for my English)

[Trai]

You are not the first person to be concerned about the mental health of the kids. But rest easy. The lyrics have been changed (as you might have noticed if you listened more closely) to be kid-friendly. The song now is about partying and dancing "a little bit too much". No big deal.

The song was a request by Perez Hilton, who asked for a lady Gaga song, and the teacher was very well aware that this might cause some problems. Any accusations of carelessness or negligence on the teacher's part are therefore unfounded.

I hadn't seen information on the video description, but I knew about alternate lyrics being a possibility-- many of the Broadway medleys my choral director had had a lot of songs that couldn't exactly be sung without him getting fired (Rent, The Producers, etc), so they had alternate lyrics written in. It's good that the teacher could somehow arrange it himself; that's pretty impressive.

[Selvan]

How do you like this one? I think it's amazingly beautiful.
PS22: Come Sail Away - Styx (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q3sJfpriulk)
I'm sailing away, set an open course for the virgin sea
Cause I've got to be free, free to face the life that's ahead of me
On board, I'm the captain, so climb aboard
We'll search for tomorrow on every shore
And I'll try, oh lord, I'll try to carry on

I look to the sea, reflections in the waves spark my memory
Some happy, some sad
I think of childhood friends and the dreams we had
We live happily forever, so the story goes
But somehow we missed out on that pot of gold
And I'll try, oh lord, I'll try to carry on

A gathering of angels appeared above my head
They sang to me this song of hope, and this is what they said
Come sail away, come sail away
Come sail away with me
Come sail away, come sail away
Come sail away with me

I thought that they were angels, but to my surprise
They climbed aboard their starship and headed for the skies
Come sail away, come sail away
Come sail away with me
Come sail away, come sail away
Come sail away with me
Come sail away, come sail away
Come sail away with me