The singer-songwriter sheds light on the pressure of living up to expectations and the importance of representation through her original song

By: Nageen Riaz

Season 1 of Canada’s Got Talent was a huge success and was Citytv’s most-viewed original series in over a decade, reaching 1.3 million weekly viewers. This year, they’re back and bigger than ever with an all-new season featuring over 100 acts, all competing for a chance to win $150,000 and the opportunity to perform at America’s Got Talent Superstars Live in Las Vegas.

Among this year’s contestants is Katherine Lynn-Rose, a Chinese-Canadian singer-songwriter who graced the stage with a performance of an original titled Top of My School. This 19-year-old Burlington-based artist wowed the crowd with her audition and received thunderous applause from the 5,000 audience members.

But getting on that stage was no easy feat. It required intense ambition, endless support and a series of spontaneous decisions.

“I submitted over the summer [of 2022] and didn’t really expect to hear back,” said Lynn-Rose. “I literally recorded when it was dark outside, and I didn’t even have lighting, I just recorded it randomly one night before I had to head back to school.”

Lynn-Rose says the experience was life-changing, but she couldn’t have done any of it without her friends and family’s support. From helping her bring her lyrics to life to cheering her on during her performances, they played an important part in Lynn-Rose’s musical journey. “As soon as I walked on stage, I swear I could hear them screaming. I could just make out their voices so clearly,” she said.

One of Lynn-Rose’s friends, Joshua Turchin, even recorded the piano arrangement for Top of My School. Lynn-Rose attempted to learn the piano chords and roughly planned out how she wanted the song to sound by using Garageband on her parents’ iPad to individually place each note on the piano. She then sent the track to Joshua, who brought it to life. Since its release, the song has gained over 12 million streams on Spotify.

Top of My School was originally inspired by a character Lynn-Rose created for a school assignment during COVID-19. The character has an obsession with being the best at everything she does, and Lynn-Rose wanted the song to incorporate that mindset by highlighting how toxic it can be. “It’s everything I don’t like about myself amplified into a person and song,” she said.

“A lot of what the lyrics touch on is based on my life as a Chinese-Canadian child of immigrants. So going into Canada’s Got Talent, I knew this is the song I wanted to start with because of how much it meant to me and how it’s my story that I’m telling.”

Lynn-Rose’s songs often revolve around the struggles of living up to her parents’ expectations. In fact, she even revealed that one of her upcoming songs was about her relationship with her mother. “When there’s a language barrier between parent and child, you learn to find other ways to express love. It’s about finding the feeling of love in silence and learning how that silence speaks,” said Lynn-Rose.

“But there’s also that feeling of ‘I know that you love me, I know that you’re showing me in these ways that are not typically how we show love, but if you could just say those three words…’ They never say it, and sometimes I really just need that verbal confirmation,” Lynn-Rose added.

This narrative resonated with a lot of Lynn-Rose’s fans and listeners, including Canada’s Got Talent judge and Canadian online personality Lily Singh who commented on the song’s ability to capture what it feels like to live up to these expectations. “This is the first time I have ever heard a song about this subject matter. I could totally see it being performed on Broadway, and I feel like for the first time I have an anthem,” Singh said during the episode.

But confronting the baggage that comes with being a child of immigrants isn’t the only thing Lynn-Rose hopes people take away from her music. “I want people to know that everyone has their own story and experiences, but they almost never get to be told in the media,” she said. “If the representation isn’t there, you can write it yourself, which is exactly what I did.”

Growing up in the musical theatre scene, Lynn-Rose recalled how she was constantly told she wouldn’t make it in the industry because the only role she would be cast in was Mulan. Since then, Lynn-Rose has learned that Asian representation on Broadway goes beyond just roles like Mulan, but there’s still an underlying problem in what these characters signify.

“The so-called representation, like in [the Broadway musical] Miss Saigon, is perpetuating the white saviour trope and it shows we are written by white people who tokenize these Asian characters,” she said.

Lynn-Rose shedding light on the lack of representation was an integral part of her audition for the reality show. Trish Stratus, a professional wrestler and another judge on Canada’s Got Talent, said during the episode, “representation matters because for the people at home, if she can see it, she can be it. The words meant so much, and everybody felt it.”

“I am not a fan of musical theatre, but you sold that so hard to me,” said judge Howie Mandel. “That was so beautiful, so real; you’re a really good writer too.”

Lynn-Rose said that meant a lot to her, because she looks up to Broadway legends Steven Sondheim and Lin-Manuel Miranda for inspiration and even describes her own style as “musical theatre pop.”

“I write music that are singles and can be stand-alone tracks but can also tell an overarching story if they need to,” she said. “Growing up, I did a lot of musical theatre, so I really love the genre and how it can tell a story, and I lean into that when I’m writing.”

Lynn-Rose hopes her love for musical theatre will one day lead her to a Broadway stage, where she aspires to either write or star in a show. For now, you can catch her on Season 2 of Canada’s Got Talent on Citytv or stream her audition on YouTube.