Saturday, October 19, 2013

Lakewood High School's Roar Impresses Katy Perry

It was the Roar heard across Colorado and across the country. That was the moment when Lakewood High School students burst into celebration after Katy Perry announced that LHS won Katy Perry's high school lip dub contest - with the prize being a private concert at the school next Friday on Perry's birthday. The contest was put together by ABC News and Katy Perry as a way to promote the song and album, as well as promote school spirit and a sense of community.  Certainly, the kids of Lakewood met that expectation.


The lip dub phenomenon is a simple but engaging concept that simply means to develop a sense of spirit and community, as kids come together in fluid continuous video lip sync. There have been some pretty impressive examples which have gone viral. And it's often inspiring to see kids come together around a singular activity that simply exists to bring people together.  Often, the format is to take a popular song, like Katy Perry's Roar and put images to it.


The contest was a great idea, though is isn't the first time Katy Perry has done something really cool for kids. Perhaps you remember Katy Perry's surprise appearance on the Oprah show to join a group of kids from the choir at PS 22 in New York who had performed Perry's "Firework" the night before on the Grammy Awards.  Perry flew in from London for the day to film the version with the kids before hopping right back on the plane to London where she had a concert that night. It was a pretty cool moment, even for Perry who said, "When Oprah calls and tells you to get on a plane, you do it."



Katy Perry represents many of the good things about the entertainment industry that is far too often considered a negative influence on kids. Perhaps Perry's model will inspire more positive behaviors, like the high school lip dub fun.


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