I first saw The Tenors, then with "Canadian" in their name, at a fundraiser at
the Jack Singer Concert Hall a few years ago. Remigio Pereira, Victor Micallef,
Fraser Walters, and Clifton Murray charmed with their wit and personality, and
took the audience's collective breath away with soaring vocals. It was a magical
night, and fans of the Tenors are excited to experience it again Monday at the
Jubilee.
"We started the tour in Portland with a 75 piece symphony orchesta. We have
sold out the first few shows. The response has been outstanding and we are
really thrilled with the feedback to the new album Lead With Your Heart," Fraser
Walters told GayCalgary Magazine over the phone prior to their Vancouver concert.
"The album only took about 8 weeks to go platinum in Canada. We released it in
the US January 15th and were just hoping to get on the pop 200 on
billboard. We've been number one on the classical and crossover charts on
Billboard before but never on the pop chart. So we hoped to get on, maybe in the
190 range. We debuted at #21. It has been pretty incredible and an exciting
time to be a Tenor no doubt."
It has been a whirlwind 4 years for the band, who have travelled the world. The
excitement to be home was evident in Walter's voice.
"It means everything to us. We are so proud to be Canadian and tell our
Canadian story on stage every night. We make a point of singing Canadian music.
We have a brand new east coast folk song that we had a cool back and fourth
with our fans asking them what song they would like to hear us sing. We
tabulated the votes and came up with a pretty cool song from the East Coast
that will remain a surprise for the show. That is an important part of what we
do. Internationally when we announce those Canadian songs people really love to
hear music from our homeland. Our new album has 4 songs that we wrote or
co-wrote. They are inherently Canadian and have the mosiac that makes up this
group. We have all different backgrounds and styles of music growing up – rock
bands, gospel music, opera, a lot of different backgrounds. We all play
instruments on stage, we like to show that musicianship as well. It is about
having a lot of fun on stage. We take the music seriously but we have a lot of
fun with the audience. Every show is different, we like to talk about local
happenings or something funny that happened over breakfast. Every audience
knows they are getting a unique show for that evening. It makes it exciting."
The interaction on stage continues online, as all four are active on social
media. They requested suggestions from fans on Facebook for their set for this
tour.
"We welcome the suggestions and love to have that interaction with our fans, we
are on Facebook and Twitter every day, we do visits to different places.
Starbucks has been a great partner of ours on this release, we have been showing
up at Starbucks in random towns. It is some fun renegade social media stuff.
The fans are the reason we are able to do this, and are why we were able to go
and record another album. With the sales of this record it looks like we will
be able to keep this streak going. It is an honour and a gift to be working as
a musician and we are incredibly greatful."
From established Tenor favourites like Hallelujah to songs off the new
album, Monday's concert promises to be a magical musical experience.
"Alberta has been amazing to us. We look forward to reconnecting with our
friends and fans in Calgary and thank you for the support. We have had a blast
visiting over the years and this will be no different."