Lakewood’s one-take lip dub of Katy Perry’s new single, “Roar,” is inching closer to 500,000 views as of Friday morning. The Tigers are hoping all the attention can help the school win a contest and bring Perry to Colorado for a concert benefiting victims of this month’s widespread flooding.
Lakewood High School’s video, which involved more than 2,000 students and spotlights the Tigers’ activities, athletic teams and clubs, was produced by students and teachers — including student body president Courtney Coddington, who directed it.
“We practiced for maybe 90 minutes,” athletic director Tim Walker said on Friday. “We did it during homeroom so it didn’t really impact education at all. … All of the clubs and groups were involved.
“We went through a couple of practices on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday. Friday, everyone lined up, and we said we were doing it — and, bam. It was on our homecoming assembly day, so we went to the assembly and then everyone went to their spot and we did the take.”
Take a look:
A one-take lip dub involving the whole school is nothing new to Lakewood. The school lip dubbed Perry’s song “Firework” in 2011.
“We wanted to do another one, and this song came out, ‘Roar,’ ” Walker said. “It fits us perfectly, because we’re the Tigers.”
Earlier this month, ABC’s Good Morning America announced a contest for schools to perform “your own rendition of ‘Roar’ for a chance to win … a live concert” by Katy Perry. Lakewood started plans for the new video.
“Then, the flood happened,” Walker said. “We were very well aware of that because Fairview was our homecoming football game, and we changed our game to Saturday afternoon instead of Friday afternoon because Fairview couldn’t practice and they wanted to change the game, and that was the least we could do for them.
“So, it turned into, ‘OK, we’re going to do this lip dub, and if we win, we’ll do a huge concert at Coors Field or something, and all the proceeds will go to the flood victims.’
“We’re hoping that we can win the contest and do something more than just a lip dub, but something for people in Boulder and other kids that have been displaced and suffering.”
The school collected $1,500 to benefit flood victims during that homecoming game against Fairview.
“It’s just one of those things where we’re trying to do the right thing,” Walker said. “It’s really neat to see the kids really care about other people and other kids and being part of the human race and not just thinking about themselves and their school. And that if we’re in a position where we can do things for other people and other schools, we’d sure like to.”
Friday morning alone, the video was shown on Good Morning America and Lakewood representatives appeared on Alice 105.9 and Fox 31. It’s been picked up by seemingly every media outlet locally, as well as national outlets like the Huffington Post, and spread through social media on Facebook, Twitter and reddit.
Perry herself Tweeted the video out and also posted it to her Facebook page.
Good Morning American will announce the winner on Oct. 10, Walker said. The concert would be Oct. 25.