American Students Catch the "Glee" Fever

People often think that high school choirs are boring because they only focus on singing classical and old music, but things have changed thanks to the new TV show “Glee” that transformed ordinary choirs into an upbeat and entertaining singing group.
The high school students of John Burroughs in Burbank, California recently caught the “Glee” fever. Called as the “Powerhouse”, the show choir consists of 54 talented students from John Burroughs and they not only got the attention of the American audience, but other countries as well.
In a recent interview by Ben Tracy of CBS News to “Powerhouse” member Victoria Goins, she said that it was incredibly fun, but there is also hard work involved. She added that they practice at least two hours a day, which is not exactly that cool for school. Goins revealed that not everyone in school thinks that their choir is cool so it depends on whom you are talking to if their choir is cool or not.
Nathan Macaranas who is a hip-hop dancer thought that the members of the choir were losers, but then things changed when he became one of them. Macaranas added that he and his friends all think the same so they thought that being in the choir was lame too, but he proved them wrong and told them that it would be awesome. The group performed a song and dance number entitled “Glee”, which of course was inspired by the famous TV musical series.
Matthew Morrison or also known as Mr. Shue in the TV musical “Glee” said that their show is now the center of pop culture and some schools even changed their tune about music programs. He added that some schools can’t take out the glee club especially now that it has become an ‘in’ thing now so they won’t touch it.
Before the show started, there were only 200 choirs in schools all over the country, but now it has reached up to 600 choirs and some even get paid to perform. Glee clubs suddenly became in demand in events. The members of PS 22 in New York were surprised when actress and host of the Oscars invited them to perform on the big night this Sunday.
Powerhouse on the other hand have already appeared on “Dancing with the Stars” and performed recently in Hong Kong for the Chinese New Year. Powerhouse’s vocal music director Brendan Jennings said that they get a lot of calls and most recent one was from Japan where they just premiered the show “Glee” and the Japanese already found their group. The students who used to be ridiculed have now something to be gleeful about. Goins ended the interview saying that it was amazing how she can finally be in a show choir and be proud of it.