School Choir Singing ‘The Champion’ Makes Carrie Underwood’s Day [Watch]
Carrie Underwood turned to social media to offer lavish praise after a school choir took on a powerful cover of her most recent song, "The Champion."
The PS22 Chorus are a group of talented fifth graders who sing under the direction of Gregg Breinberg at Public School 22 in Staten Island, N.Y. Their inspiring cover of Underwood's powerful new overcome-the-odds anthem posted on YouTube on Monday (March 26), and by Tuesday it had come to the attention of Underwood herself, who was so deeply moved by what she saw that she turned to Twitter to react.
"Each and every one of you is most definitely a champion! So much love for the @PS22Chorus," she writes, adding a heart emoji and closing with, "This made my day!!! "
Breinberg also gushed about his students via Facebook, writing, "Carrie Underwood's hot new single #TheChampion (ft. Ludacris) has brought us a lot of joy -- first the thrill of the PS22 Chorus cameo in Carrie's official video, and second?? THIS!!! And the all-caps and exclamation points don't even begin to do this justice... Massive props to the chorus on this one for bringing some atomic energy and killer harmony, our wicked cool rappers Joshua & Madison, drummer extraordinaire Quentin, and lil' powerhouse Leiara who blew us away with that KO solo!! Champions indeed!!"
This kind of public attention is nothing new to the PS22 Chorus. The kids have attracted notice from stars before for covers of their songs, including Adele, Elle King, Taylor Swift and Garth Brooks. To see some of their other all-star covers and learn more about the kids, visit their website.
"The Champion" pairs Underwood with rapper Ludacris for a fist-pumping anthem about overcoming whatever life throws at you. The powerful song reached No. 1 on the iTunes Top Songs chart in 10 countries after it first aired during Super Bowl LII, where more than 131 million viewers saw it worldwide. It held the top spot throughout its release week prior to the game in America, then climbed back to No. 1 for four consecutive days after the Super Bowl LII opening. "The Champion" also debuted in the Top 5 on the all-genre Top 200 Digital Songs chart and reached No. 7 on Spotify's US Viral 50 chart.
Underwood is nominated for ACM Awards Female Vocalist of the Year for the 13th time in 2018, and she is also nominated for Vocal Event of the Year for "The Fighter," her duet with Keith Urban. She's been in the studio working on new music as part of a new deal she signed with Capitol Records Nashville. So far she has announced just two shows for 2018; one in June at the 2018 CMA Fest in Nashville, and another at We Fest, which takes place from Aug. 2-4 in Detroit Lakes, Minn.
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