An opportunity of a lifetime has presented itself to a local Drumheller vocalist to showcase her talent at the Canadian Finals Rodeo (CFR) in Edmonton in October.
Rachel St. Amour has been a singer in the Drumheller area for a number of years and couldn’t pass up the opportunity to sing the national anthem at the CFR this fall. She shares how the opportunity came up. “My Mother-in-law, actually, informed me about this contest. She follows the CFR pretty closely and this is actually going to be the first time that I ever go, which is quite the way to start. She sent it to me and said ‘this is a great opportunity, you should try it out.’ Out of the amount of people that submitted, I believe there was about 45 contestants, and they picked the top 5 to perform.” The final five contestants had to sing at Cook County Saloon in Edmonton earlier this month, having to sing the anthem as well as their own song choice. St. Amour chose to sing the huge hit by Dolly Parton, “Jolene”.
St. Amour got the news that she made it through. “I actually won, so I got to meet the four other contestants, obviously, and they were very talented. It just goes to show the amount of talent we have in Alberta in country music. I was very grateful and very humbled to win. I actually also won a thousand dollars cash. They are going to be reaching out to me in the future, in 2027, to have other singing opportunities. I have also had people message me for different opportunities, so I am so looking forward to it.”
St. Amour has had opportunities to sing at the King Eddy in Calgary as well as doing the national anthem for Drumheller Dragons games. She shares that singing the anthem at the CFR is going to be epic. “I think the opportunity to be able to sing in front of even more people, that’s what really excited me. I love county. I’m a country girl at heart. I was raised on a good variety of different (music). I love rodeos, love watching love attending, love supporting, and I thought this would be such a good opportunity to do. Now, I get to live it up and be down on the dirt on October 8th, and I’m pretty excited.”
Comments