Strathmore teen competes for a singles record deal with Sony
Shannon LeClair
Times Reporter
Strathmore songstress Kirstyn Johnson has made it into the Top 3 of the MuchMusic and Coca Cola Covers Competition, beating out close to 11,000 other entries.
Johnson is up against the Oducado twins from Toronto, Ontario, and Neil Pranjivan from Surrey, B.C., for a shot at a singles deal with Sony Entertainment Canada Inc., which will include a song release and a music video funded by MuchFact.
The mild mannered 17-year-old with the phenomenal voice first heard about the competition while watching MuchMusic a few years ago.
“I had been wanting to do it for the past few years but I was like, hmm I don’t know if I would even make it, is it even worth it, and then I was just like man up Kirstyn, you have to do this,” said Johnson.
And so she began the process. It took some time for the teen to determine which song she wanted to sing, and how she wanted to go about it. She finally opted to sing ‘Thinkin’ Bout You’ by Frank Ocean, accompanying her vocals with the piano.
“I had to practice a lot. One thing you struggle with in these kinds of (competitions) is not making the song the same as it is in the original version. You want to bring your own flavour to it but you don’t want to stray too far so that it’s not appealing to your listener. It’s kind of a tough balance but it’s a journey for you as an artist to get to know yourself, and it’s challenge and I like that,” said Johnson.
“So I just really had to sit with the song for a bit and decide how I was going to approach it, how produced I was going to make it, if I was going to add different tracks or if I was going to strip it down and just do a funky piano sound and a vocal.
“I ended up just doing the piano sound and a vocal because I thought that it might be different from what everyone else was doing, because I had seen a lot of acoustic guitar covers and stuff like that. I wanted to ensure that I was going to be a little bit different from what everyone else was doing.”
Johnson has been working on releasing her EP, though, for now, that is on hold while she focuses on the competition. She has gained a lot of fans from being involved in the competition and she is excited to share her progress with them and future fans. If the opportunity arises to further pursue her musical career she would, even if it means home schooling until completing high school.
Johnson, and her fellow Top 3 finalists, have won a VIP trip to the 2013 MuchMusic Video Awards on June 16 in Toronto, and their own 30-second commercial. The winner of the competition will be announced at the awards.
Johnson would love to win, but for her the biggest goal she has right now is getting her name out there and being seen by the public.
“Either way I’m not going to stop, I’m always going to put something out no matter what happens or how this competition unfolds, there’s no doubt in my mind something will be out with my name on it,” said Johnson.
From now until June 16 fans can view and rate Johnson for a chance at the top spot by going to www.muchmusic.com/covers.