Choir Angered by Celebrity “Imagine” Video
Choir Angered by Celebrity “Imagine” Video-Edwin Eggplant
Chances are if you’ve been online during self-isolation, you’ve seen this now-infamous video. On March 20, Gal Gadot, of Wonder Woman acclaim, teamed up with celebrities throughout the world to create a film of them singing the John Lennon classic Imagine, and all the different parts of the quarantine internet world have not forgotten about it since. Many people, especially on Twitter and Instagram, were somewhat uncomfortable with Gal Gadot’s nervous smile as she entreated people afraid of dying to “Imagine there’s no heaven”, while others called it a desperate bid by celebrities to remain relevant during a global crisis, leading to the appearance that the world unanimously reacted poorly to the film. Bad feelings towards this video, however, take on a whole new form among the members of Western Reserve Academy’s student choir. This singing group, much like the aforementioned stars, are put into quite a difficult position by the transition to an online space. As Ms. Karam angrily notes, “Gal Gadot totally stole my performance plan for the rest of the semester. I even had all the lyrics of Imagine divided for each student!” Even as students try to cope with the loss of such a thoughtful way to communicate with the rest of the world, they are coming up with new performance ideas! Regina Aguilar ’20 takes an optimistic approach, mentioning, “Even though people didn’t really like the first one, I think the idea is still cute! We should definitely try it again. Maybe a TikTok?” Lauren Dempsey ’21 suggests that the choir be entirely moved to Zoom conferences only: “We tried it out the other day with outstanding success! I think that the music sounds much better with the computer-y sound to it. We should perform like this even after we reunite.” However the choir ends up working it out, though, we know that it won’t be like Gal Gadot.
The Reserve Record 