The hunt for Canada’s next great hockey song is over. Throughout this hockey season, CBC‘s HOCKEY NIGHT IN CANADA and CBCMusic.ca have been searching for inspirational, energetic songs to excite hockey fans from coast to coast. Yesterday, Dave Gunning (@dave_gunning) from Pictou, NS, came out on top with his song A Game Goin’ On.
“The original idea for this song came from David Francey and he asked me to co-write it with him. We worked on it some during a Celtic Colours Festival songwriting retreat but never had time to finish it,” says Gunning. “Last year during the NHL lockout we finished the song. I was certainly frustrated along with so many other hockey fans and felt it was good timing to release a song that encapsulated the old fashioned love of the game the real reason why so many of us play hockey either professionally or for fun.”
Gunning was announced as winner of this year’s Song Quest competition during yesterday’s broadcast of the 2014 NHL Bridgestone Winter Classic® on CBC-TV. Gunning’s song, A Game Goin’ On, will be professionally produced by Juno Award winner Joel Plaskett and featured in a video montage for an opening sequence of a future HOCKEY NIGHT IN CANADA broadcast. Gunning will also travel to Lloydminster, Alberta/Saskatchewan to perform his song during the Stolen from a Hockey Card concert brought to you by Scotiabank on Jan. 16, 2014 as part of the Scotiabank Hockey Day in Canada festivities.
Close to 1000 original compositions were submitted with representation from each Province and Territory and over 300,000 votes were cast throughout the competition. With the help of fans and Song Quest judges Sara Quin, Theo Fleury, Joel Plaskett, Chantal Kreviazuk and P.J. Stock, songs were narrowed down to the Top 50, then to the Top 10, and finally determining Gunning as the winner.
Honourable mentions go to The Puckhogs (@ThePuckhogs) for their song, For the Love of the Game and Francis Arsenault (@fdarsenault) for his song, Hockey Night Tonight, who came in second and third place respectively.
For more information about Song Quest, go to CBCMusic.ca/SongQuest and follow all the action on twitter at @CBCMusic #SongQuest.
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About CBC Music.ca
CBCMusic.ca is Canada’s free digital music service. For the casual listener to the hardcore fan, connect with the very best Canadian and international music, concerts and features. Simple and easy to navigate, CBCMusic.ca gives Canadians access to 50 Web radio stations, 12 distinct genre-based music communities, CBC Radio 2 and CBC Radio 3, plus content from the most knowledgeable music personalities and programmers from across the country, hundreds of concerts, playlists and more.
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