Davidson’s Mains Primary School were on song as winners in the Edinburgh Primary School Show choir Challenge.
The youngsters were judged top of the six primary schools who made it to the final of the Challenge in front of a jam packed Assembly Rooms on Thursday night. First and second runners up were St John’s RC Primary and Trinity Primary School.
Host for the evening, which was organised by the Frisson Foundation, was Kingdom FM’s Ali Mclaren with four judges casting an eye, ‘X Factor’ style, over proceedings.
The judges all drawn from the music industry and music education were David Beckett, Dionne Hickey, Hannah Ferrier-Baker and Robert Nee. Dionne Hickey also performed after the interval bringing all of the children and the adults to their feet with a wonderful performance of her own material and covers.
All the show choirs performed the set song, One Republic’s ‘Love Runs out’ – which was ideal for stamping feet and clapping hands both on the stage and in the audience – then sang and danced to a track of their own choosing. The songs chosen were a real mix from Charlie Chaplin’s ‘Smile’ to Adele’s Rolling in the Deep’ and Davidson Mains winning performance of ‘Up Town Funk’.
Linda Cormie, CEO of The Frisson Foundation, said ‘this is our second year in Edinburgh and it just gets better and better. Our project aims to build confidence and skills for children through participation and tonight we saw the results of all the hard work and creativity in our schools. For us, however, every child that participated is a winner but our special congratulations go to the winners Davidson Mains Primary and their show choir leader Helen Basset.’
The Glee Primary School Challenge, was started in 2013 in Fife to offer children and young people the opportunity to experience performance opportunities while developing their social abilities and building self-esteem, language and communication skills. This year the Challenge is also taking place in Edinburgh, Falkirk and Perth and Kinross.
Submitted by Bill Breckenridge, The Frisson Foundation
