WINNIPEG, MB
For more than thirty years, Winnipeg singers delighted audiences on Sunday afternoons on the hit CBC television show ‘Hymn Sing’. Many former ‘Hymn Sing’ members have gone on to do great things. We’ve caught up with a few of them to find out about their post-Hymn Sing lives.
- Barney Loewen (1972-1983) – “Once I left Hymn Sing my life was a mess. I tried to salvage a music career after that, even taught piano lessons for a while, but eventually I got involved in the Winnipeg underground punk rock scene. I played lead guitar for a band called the Depraved Mennos. You may have heard of us. Our LP is a collector’s item now. It’s so rare, I don’t even have a copy myself. Can anyone hook me up with one?”
- Allen Giesbrecht (1965-1967) – “I was Altona’s first ever Rhodes Scholar and Hymn Sing member. I don’t know which accomplishment I’m more proud of. I did a PhD in Economics, but I could never apply what I learnt to my own life. I’ve got major financial problems now. I don’t really want to get into it. My only happy memories are from my time on Hymn Sing.”
- Samantha Plett (1989-1991) – “I’m a former Treble Teen who made it onto Hymn Sing. I like to show my children some of my old Hymn Sing episodes, but if it doesn’t have twerking in it, they’re just not interested. It’s too bad. We did a truly amazing version of the ‘Old Rugged Cross.’ That was probably my favourite.”
- Simon Hildebrandt (1981-1982) – “I was only on Hymn Sing for about six months before quitting the show to run for office as a member of the Marxist-Leninist Party. I wasn’t elected, but I did get more than 30 votes, so I’m pretty proud of that accomplishment. I’m now a blogger.”
- Marnie Dueck (1991-1995) – “I met my first three husbands on Hymn Sing. Abe, Paul, and Bennie. After three nasty divorces, in which I had to relinquish half my Hymn Sing wealth to my no-good husbands, I gave up on hymn singers and, after two more tries, I am now happily married to a pastor’s son.”
