Instant Star
A teen navigates fame, music, and personal challenges.
Instant Star, a Canadian musical teen drama, ran from September 2004 to June 2008. It follows Jude Harrison, a teenage singing competition winner played by Alexz Johnson, as she navigates the music industry. Linda Schuyler, who co-created Degrassi, developed the series. Epitome Pictures produced it, with CTV airing it in Canada and Noggin’s The N block in the US. Four seasons of 13 episodes each were produced. Funding from both CTV and The N ended after season four, halting plans for a fifth season.
Quick Facts
- Genre
- Teen drama; Musical
- Creator
- Linda Schuyler
- Starring
- Alexz Johnson
- Kristopher Turner
- Tim Rozon
- Laura Vandervoort
- Theme music
- Jody Colero
- Jim McGrath
- Stephen Stohn
- Country
- Canada
- Location
- Toronto, Ontario, Canada
- Language
- English
- Seasons
- 4
Facts from the source article.
Overview
Each episode of the show, Jude Harrison must deal with the issues and challenges of both her musical career and her personal life, as one weaves into the other. She also faces dilemmas and choices in her relationships, dividing her feelings between the loves in her life, while also recording with G-Major Records. These people are important to her music – the one thread that ties her life together. Her best moments are when she is working with others in creating and performing her music. In addition to her music and her loves, there is much else going on in her personal life and in the lives of those around her.
Music
Each episode of the series features a new song performed by Alexz Johnson. Usually, the song is about something that occurs in the episode. However, in some episodes, there is no direct explanation to the lyrics; sometimes it's just a song. Some episodes can feature more than one song, but there is only one song per episode that is to be featured on the soundtrack for that season. For instance, there are 13 episodes per season, which means there are 13 main songs. One of the songs, "Perfect," was written by Canadian synth pop artist Lights. Alexz Johnson recorded the vocals on the first and second soundtracks, while even co-writing some of the songs with her brother Brendan. For the third and fourth soundtracks, Alexz wasn't featured for all of the songs because of the release of her debut album and conflicts with prior record labels. Just before the broadcast of the second season on The N, viewers had a chance to see Alexz Johnson in concert in a show called Instant Star: Backstage Pass, singing two of the songs from each season of the show and accompanied by her band from the show, Spiederman Mind Explosion.
Reception
In 2005, after its first season, Instant Star was nominated for three Gemini Awards in the category of Best Children's or Youth Fiction Program or Series. Nominations included: (1) Best Series; (2) Best Performance (Alexz Johnson); and (3) Best Direction (Graeme Campbell). The show won the award for Best Direction for the episode You Can't Always Get What You Want. On August 28, 2007, the show received three more Gemini Award nominations in the category of Best Children's or Youth Program or series. Alexz Johnson was again nominated for Best Performance (for the episode, "I Fought the Law"), and there were two more nominations for Best Direction - Graeme Campbell (for "I Fought the Law"), and Pat Williams (for "Personality Crisis").
Frequently Asked Questions
Who stars in Instant Star?
Instant Star stars Alexz Johnson, Kristopher Turner, Tim Rozon and Laura Vandervoort.
How many episodes of Instant Star are there?
Instant Star has 52 episodes across 4 seasons.
When did Instant Star end?
Instant Star last aired on 28 July 2008.
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