A young Langley singer, is asking for a bit of sympathy and — more importantly — some support, in her bid to become the top cover artist in a national contest that has musicians putting their own spin on popular songs.
Shylo Sharity has been selected as a top 10 semifinalist from more than 1,000 entries into the Much Music Coca Cola Covers contest.
The 22-year-old, who is already a veteran performer in the Lower Mainland, stumbled across the contest online and decided to take a shot.
The public is asked to rate and/or “like” their favourite artist, whose videos are posted on the site.
Voting for this round closes on May 15.
Of the six songs offered as options — including selections from Rhianna, Ke$ha and Taio Cruz — Sharity chose to cover Gimme Sympathy by Metric.
Although she’s a fan of the band, this particular song was unfamiliar to her.
“I’d never heard it, but I felt like I could do a good job with it — it suited my voice best,” she said.
For her own rendition, Sharity wanted to make the song more “colourful.”
“I wanted to give it more flavour, more up and down, to be able to show my vocal abilities,” she said.
“I like the challenge of taking someone else’s song and making it my own song.”
And she’ll have three more opportunities to do just that.
For the next round, Sharity and her fellow top 10 finalists — including two others from B.C. — will submit three more covers for people to vote on.
Sharity will sing What the Hell, by Avril Lavigne, Airplanes by B.o.B. and When the Night Feels My Song, by Bedouin Soundclash
The top three performers will be invited to Toronto to attend the MMVAs on June 19 as VIPs. That same night, the contest winner will be announced.
Sharity has checked out her competition and discovered some “amazing” talent among them. Currently, she has the second highest number of votes.
“It’s such an honour to be in the top 10,” she said.
Sharity, who writes her own music and most recently won the Variety’s Got Talent contest, is getting set to hit the stage at the Merritt Mountain Music Festival in July.
To check out the top 10 contestants in the Much Music contest and “like” your favourite artist, go to http://covers.muchmusic.com/