My oldest went to auditions for “Canada’s Next Star” this past weekend with a small group of her friends, as well as almost a thousand other kids. Thankfully another parent had volunteered to take the girls so I didn’t have to get up at the crack of dawn with her or sit around the convention centre all day.
They arrived a little after seven and didn’t leave until nearly four in the afternoon. Quite a long day for what amounted to a 5 minute audition. Not surprisingly none of them continued onto the next round but they clearly had a fun day. I don’t think any of them expected to be chosen they just wanted the experience of doing something new and interesting with friends.
In fact when I agreed to let her go I made sure she that this was why she was doing it, for fun and not an expectation of future stardom. I’m not saying she’s as bad a singer as I am (which would be quite a feat) but she is neither spectacularly bad nor spectacularly good. I didn’t want her to have high hopes only to have them dashed. As it was she went expecting nothing more than a fun day out of it and so that’s what she took from it.
I want her to have a love and appreciation for music and the arts and to feel free to explore what they mean to her. I looked at this as just another part of that exploration. We like many others love music in many different shapes and forms. From ragtime to swing, pop to rock, disco to punk we listen to and love it all.
I may not always appreciate her music choices but I’ll always try to keep an open mind and support her exploration. I’m already falling behind the times and don’t particularly care for much of the most popular music today. We no longer have the same choices in radio stations but I think finding music your parents don’t relate too is just part of the discovery. The discovery of what makes music your very own thing.
