It's not every day that a global superstar like Mariah Carey sings your praises, but that's what happened to pupils of St John Vianney RC Primary School in Blackpool. When the schools's 1H class performed the American singer's song, Hero, during an assembly last Friday, no one at the Glastonbury Avenue school ever imagined she would get to see it. Mariah Carey was impressed when Blackpool youngsters performed one of her songs.
But the wonders of social media meant the star, who is now set to perform at Blackpool's Livewire event in August, not only saw it, but loved it. The stirring performance of the ballad was recorded as a video on Twitter and shared to other users. Mariah spotted it and ended up sharing it herself, with the ringing endorsement, "My heroes."
"It is wonderful that it has reached such a far-ranging audience and in particular, that it has been praised by Mariah Carey," said headteacher Elaine Allen. "I must admit it was a really good performance by the children, they sang their hearts out and all the parents are so proud of them. The children think it's amazing that the original singer and writer loved it so much."
The performance came about because the theme of the school assembly was heroes around the world. Each of the classes at the school, which has 460 pupils, gave a special performance based around that theme. 1H Class teacher, Julia Hulme, decided it would be a good idea for the youngsters, aged just five and six, to tackle the song, which was originally released back in 1993, long before the children were even born.
Mrs Hulme was impressed at how quickly the youngsters picked up the song, whose simple and uplifting message is that people can become their own heroes, even if they are up against things. With 30 children in class 1H, it might have seemed a daunting challenge to get all the pupils' voices to gel together, but they responded to the challenge brilliantly.
Mariah Carey has a considerable presence on Twitter, with no less than 21.3 million avid followers from across the world. Given her huge following, there's a chance that more people have now seen Class 1H's performance of her song than if they had performed it on TV here in Britain.
Mrs Allen added: "It just goes to show that someone like Mariah Carey does read these messages and responds to them. When you think about it, it is all quite amazing. This song was only performed for the school assembly, we never expected anything like this."
The song is still one of the singer's best known hits and most performed singles and is considered to be one of her main signature tunes. The artist, one of the world's most successful recording stars, has performed that particular song at big events all over the world. It has also been performed by other well known names such as Aretha Franklin, Michael Ball and Rihanna.
But none of these performances seem to have delighted Mariah Carey as much as that special rendition at St John Vianney RC Primary School in Blackpool. Does this unexpected accolade mean they will give another performance of it?
It seems unlikely there will be a repeat rendition of the song, despite all the attention. But they will always have the charming video and the famous singer's kind words: "My heroes." It was announced yesterday that Marian Carey is to perform at Livewire on Friday, August 24.
(Blackpool Gazette)
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