Schools Spectacular

Last updated

Schools Spectacular
GenreMusic performance
FrequencyAnnual event
Location(s) Qudos Bank Arena, Sydney Olympic Park (2016–present)
Sydney Entertainment Centre (1983–2015)
Years active41
Inaugurated1983
Most recent2024
Previous event29 and 30 November 2024
Next event28 and 29 November 2025
Participants5,500+ [1]
Attendance32,000+
Website www.schoolsspectacular.com.au

The NSW Schools Spectacular is an Australian variety show featuring more than 5,500 students from public schools across New South Wales and was performed annually at the Sydney Entertainment Centre (later known as Qantas Credit Union Arena) between 1984 and 2015, after which the venue was permanently closed. In 2016, it moved to Sydney Olympic Park, and found its new home at Qudos Bank Arena.

Contents

The NSW Schools Spectacular was broadcast by the Australian Broadcasting Corporation from 1984 until 2012, then by the Nine Network from 2013 until 2015. The Seven Network has been broadcasting the Schools Spectacular since 2016. Fifteen television cameras are placed in various vantage points throughout the arena. All four performances are recorded, and the best versions of each show segment are edited together and then aired in the television broadcast two weeks after the live event.

The actual performance is made up of many different pieces. A typical piece would have a spotlighted soloist singing on an elevated platform in the arena, surrounded by many dancers and actors. On the stage, the orchestra would be playing the instrumental part of the song while the choirs behind and next to the orchestra would be singing the chorus of the song. There are some 400 audio inputs for microphones and musical instruments, and an amazing array of around 600 lights used throughout the show.

The first NSW Schools Spectacular was Schools Spectacular 1983 and was intended to be a sound test for the Sydney Entertainment Centre. Since then, the NSW Schools Spectacular has evolved significantly. The 2012 event included 3,600 students and 600 teachers from 400 schools in four performances viewed by 30,000 people. [2] Schools Spectacular 2016 broke the Guinness World Record for "Largest Amateur Variety Act", with 5,500 performers. [1]

As well as being broadcast each year on national television, the NSW Schools Spectacular is webcast through the Internet onto their website, with the help and sponsorship by Cisco Systems. The Schools Spectacular is produced by 'The Arts Unit' of the New South Wales Department of Education.

The Victorian Government also sponsors their own edition which began in 2001. [3]

Themes By Year

Each year the Schools Spectacular follows a theme:

Notable alumni

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tina Arena</span> Australian singer-songwriter (born 1967)

Filippina Lydia "Tina" Arena is an Australian singer-songwriter, musician, musical theatre actress and record producer. She is one of Australia's highest-selling artists and has sold over 10 million records worldwide. Arena is multilingual, singing and recording in English, Italian, French and Spanish.

<i>Australian Idol</i> Australian singing competition TV series

Australian Idol is an Australian singing competition, which began its first season in July 2003 and ended its initial run in November 2009. As part of the Idol franchise, Australian Idol originated from the reality program Pop Idol, which was created by British entertainment executive Simon Fuller. Australian Idol was televised on Network Ten for its first seven series and was broadcast on the Southern Cross Austereo Radio Network between 2005 and 2007. The series returned in 2023 after Seven Network announced they would be picking up the show.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">The Wiggles</span> Australian childrens music group

The Wiggles are an Australian children's music group formed in Sydney in 1991. As of 2022, the group members are Anthony Field, Lachlan Gillespie, Simon Pryce, Tsehay Hawkins, Evie Ferris, John Pearce, Caterina Mete and Lucia Field. The Wiggles were founded in 1991 by Anthony Field, Murray Cook, Jeff Fatt, Greg Page and Phillip Wilcher. Wilcher left the group after their first album. Page retired in 2006 due to ill health and was replaced by understudy Sam Moran, but returned in 2012, replacing Moran. At the end of 2012, Cook, Fatt and Page retired and were replaced by Gillespie, Pryce and Emma Watkins. Cook and Fatt retained their shareholding in the group and all three continued to have input into its creative and production aspects, while engaging in occasional reunion performances. Watkins departed the group in 2021, with the group subsequently adopting an expanded line-up of eight members.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Christine Anu</span> Australian pop singer and actress (born 1970)

Christine Anu is an Australian singer-songwriter and actress of Torres Strait Islander origin. She gained popularity with the cover song release of the Warumpi Band's song "My Island Home" in 1995. Anu has been nominated for many ARIA Awards, winning several, as well as five Deadly Awards, among others. In August 2024 she released a new album and single of the same name, Waku: Minaral a Minalay.

Georgina Parker is an Australian television soap actress and has also appeared in film and theatre. She is a double Gold Logie winner, best known for her acting roles in Australian soap operas; as Lucy Gardiner in A Country Practice; as Theresa "Terri" Sullivan in All Saints; and as Roo Stewart in Home and Away, as well as being a presenter on the children's program Play School.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Marcia Hines</span> Australian singer and TV personality (born 1953)

Marcia Elaine Hines AM is an American-born Australian singer and TV personality. Hines made her debut, at the age of 16, in the Australian production of the stage musical Hair and followed with the role of Mary Magdalene in Jesus Christ Superstar.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rob Mills</span> Australian singer (born 1982)

Robert Mills is an Australian actor, television host and singer-songwriter. He was one of the finalists from the first season of Australian Idol in 2003. He co-hosted the late-night quiz show The Mint with his childhood idol, J-Dawg, the two would go on to star in the hit show Young Talent Time, and was a regular singer on the game show The Singing Bee both on the Nine Network. Mills took part in the ninth season of Dancing with the Stars, and appeared on Celebrity Apprentice. In 2008, Mills won the lead male role of Fiyero in a production of Wicked, and continued the role when it moved around Australia. He has since starred in a number of popular large scale musical theatre productions. In 2012, Mills was announced as the host of Network Ten's revamped Young Talent Time. He played teacher Finn Kelly on Neighbours from 2017 until 2022. He is engaged to Georgie Tunny from The Project.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paulini</span> Fijian-Australian singer and songwriter (born 1982)

Pauline Curuenavuli, known professionally as Paulini, is a Fijian-Australian singer, songwriter and musical theatre actress. Born in Suva, Paulini moved to Sydney with her family at the age of four. She rose to fame in 2003 as a contestant on the first season of Australian Idol and placed fourth in the competition. After Idol, Paulini signed a recording contract with Sony BMG Australia and released her debut studio album One Determined Heart (2004), which debuted at number one on the ARIA Albums Chart and was certified platinum. The album included the platinum single "Angel Eyes", which spent three consecutive weeks at number one on the ARIA Singles Chart. Paulini received two ARIA No. 1 Chart Awards for both the album and single.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chrissy Amphlett</span> Australian singer and actress (1959–2013)

Christine Joy Amphlett was an Australian singer, songwriter and actress, best known as the frontwoman of the rock band Divinyls. She was notable for her brash, overtly sexual persona and subversive humour in lyrics, performances and media interviews.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anthony Callea</span> Musical artist

Anthony Cosmo Callea is an Australian singer-songwriter and stage actor who rose to prominence as the runner-up in the 2004 season of Australian Idol. Callea's debut single, a cover of Celine Dion and Andrea Bocelli's song "The Prayer", is the fastest-selling single by an Australian artist; it held the number-one spot on the ARIA Singles Chart for five weeks, a record for the debut single of an Australian Idol contestant, and was the second-highest-selling Australian single of the 2000s.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Foreman (musician)</span> Australian musician (born 1972)

John Gregory Foreman is an Australian musician and television personality. From 1992 to 2004, he was the music director for Network Ten's Good Morning Australia with Bert Newton. From 2003 until 2008 he was musical director of Australian Idol. He is the chair of the National Australia Day Council.

Colin Frederick Jacobsen, better known by his stage name Col Joye, is an Australian pioneer rock singer-songwriter, musician and entrepreneur with a career spanning almost sixty-seven years, starting from the late 50s. Joye was the first Australian rock and roll singer to have a number one record Australia-wide, and experienced a string of chart successes in the early Australian rock and roll scene, performing with his then band the Joy Boys.

Australia Day Live is a concert which is hosted each year on Australia Day, on 26 January at the forecourt of the Sydney Opera House and Sydney Harbour. The concert features music from Australian artists and musicians.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Trevor Ashley</span> Australian actor

Trevor Ashley is an Australian musical theatre actor, cabaret, and drag artist based in Sydney. He also has appeared on television in The Very Trevor Ashley Show.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Emma Watkins</span> Australian musician and actress (born 1989)

Emma Olivia Watkins is an Australian children's entertainer, dancer and television presenter. She is best known as the first female member of the children's group the Wiggles, which she was a member of from 2013 to 2021. Due to her popularity in the group, she starred in her own spinoff series as a solo Wiggles performer, titled Emma!. After departing the group, she debuted her own children's entertainment character, Emma Memma, in 2022. She released her first solo children's music album in September 2022, which received an ARIA Award for Best Children's Album in 2023.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ngaiire</span> Musical artist

Ngaire Laun Joseph, known by her stage name Ngaiire, is a Papua New Guinea-born Australian-based R&B and future soul singer-songwriter. Her musical career commenced in 2003 with an enrollment in a bachelor of Jazz Studies at the Central Queensland University (CQU). In 2004, she competed in the second season of Australian Idol, where she competed as a semi-finalist but did not make it to the final 12 singers. She then worked with Blue King Brown and Paul Mac as a session vocalist before re-focusing on her solo career in 2008.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Amy Shark</span> Australian indie pop musician (born 1986)

Amy Louise Billings, known professionally as Amy Shark, is an Australian indie pop singer-songwriter-guitarist and producer from the Gold Coast, Queensland. During 2008 to 2012, her early solo material was released and performed under the name Amy Cushway. Her 2016 single "Adore" peaked at number 3 on the ARIA Singles Chart and was also listed at number 2 on the Triple J Hottest 100, 2016. Her album Love Monster debuted at number 1 on the ARIA Albums Chart. Shark has won 8 ARIA Music Awards from 29 nominations, including winning Best Pop Release three times: in 2017 for her extended play, Night Thinker, 2018 for Love Monster and 2020 for "Everybody Rise".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tsehay Hawkins</span> Australian dancer and singer (born 2005)

Tsehay Hawkins is an Australian dancer and singer, best known as a member of the Wiggles. She was the second female to be a member of the group and is the first member of African heritage, as well as the youngest to have ever joined, joining at age sixteen.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Caterina Mete</span> Australian dancer, singer and choreographer

Caterina Mete is an Australian dancer, singer, choreographer and children's entertainer who is a member of the children's band the Wiggles.

References

  1. 1 2 The Echo (28 November 2016). "Northern Rivers schools help break Guinness record". Echonetdaily. Archived from the original on 14 December 2024.
  2. ↑ Branley, Alison (9 October 2012). "Three Hunter students in Schools Spectacular" . Newscastle Herald . Australian Community Media . Retrieved 8 July 2013.
  3. ↑ "Victorian State Schools Spectacular". vic.gov.au . 17 September 2024. Archived from the original on 14 December 2024. Retrieved 14 December 2024.
  4. ↑ Knox, David (13 December 2012). "Airdate: Schools Spectacular 2012". TV Tonight . Archived from the original on 14 December 2024. Retrieved 8 July 2013.
  5. ↑ "Shannon Brown | Australia | Musical Director". shannongbrown. Retrieved 2 May 2019.
  6. ↑ "Schools Spectacular 2014". www.limelightmagazine.com.au. Retrieved 5 December 2015.
  7. ↑ @schoolsspec (20 July 2023). "Celebrating 40 years of Schools Spectacular and 175 years of Public Education! Thank you to alumni @tsehay.hawkins for coming to the launch and celebrating with some of this year's featured artists and Secretary NSW Department of Education, Murat Dizdar". Archived from the original on 4 December 2023. Retrieved 29 November 2023– via Instagram.
  8. ↑ @schoolsspec (20 November 2023). "✨❤️Listen to the #FabuloUS Yellow Wiggle @tsehay.hawkins talk about her experience performing in #SchoolsSpectacular!". Archived from the original on 4 December 2023. Retrieved 29 November 2023– via Instagram.
This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.