Music to Play Hockey By

Well, I'm proud to say that I went out there and I voted in most important election this nation has ever faced. I'm also proud to say my candidate won! I am, of course, talking about the election for a new Hockey Night in Canada theme song!

(I also lament that that's the last time I'll be able to use that lame set-up for talking about the Hockey Night in Canada Anthem Challenge)

But on Hockey Night in Canada, they revealed that the new theme song is Canadian Gold, written by Beaumont music teacher Colin Oberst. Oberst wins $100,000 up front and a cut of the royalties. Plus, his song is now the official Hockey Night in Canada theme song.

I will admit, when I first heard about the CBC's plans to turn choosing a new HNIC theme song into just another reality TV show competition, I thought it was lame. But then when I saw the recap show a few weeks back when they unveiled the five finalists, I realized that once a professional music producer got through with them, they all sounded pretty good...and kind of the same.

Except for Oberst's, which had a very different flavour to it. The bagpipes at the beginning really set it apart.

So, here it is...Canadian Gold

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Meanwhile, across the street, CTV is waving their arms around, jumping up and down, and going, "Hey, remember us? We bought the original Hockey Night in Canada theme song and we're going to use it as the theme song for NHL on TSN now! Remember when we did that? Remember how cool you thought we were? Remember?"

Well, when the CBC was in the midst of announcing the winner of the Anthem Challenge, CTV made the announcement that they signed a deal with several of the country's top bands. These top bands will be recording their versions of The Hockey Anthem and CTV will be using them for their NHL on TSN broadcasts.

The first band to record their own rendition is Simple Plan. NHL on TSN will start using the Simple Plan version on October 18.