Music teacher Nancy Leong’s song “Be a Friend” featured in national music video, songwriting contest
Always seeking to inspire her students to use music as a tool to bring people together, Hurffville Elementary School music teacher Nancy Leong entered a songwriting contest in the spring of 2016 sponsored by “Music Express” magazine. She had entered the contest on other occasions with no response, but decided to submit Hurffville principal Jeff Pollock’s number one rule — “Be a Friend” — as a concept, thinking it would make a great title for a song. The folks at “Music Express” magazine agreed.
Composers John Jacobson and Matt Huff teamed to compose the song “Be a Friend,” and the magazine published it in the August edition of the magazine, along with a lesson plan that Leong, the school’s 2012–13 Teacher of the Year, was asked to write to accompany the song.
The song also was chosen by the magazine to be its annual “video mash-up song,” and schools throughout the country were invited to learn choreography and submit video performances of the song. Those subsequently were edited into one video of schools across the nation performing “Be a Friend,” a song that was written for and dedicated to Hurffville Elementary School.
Fast forward to a recent summer seminar, “The Joy of Singing Choral Workshop,” that Leong attended in King of Prussia, Pa. The daylong workshop introduced new music and activities for elementary music classes to educators. One of the sessions was taught by none other than composer John Jacobson. As expected, he and Leong became fast friends.
“Music has become such an important part of building a positive school culture at Hurffville Elementary,” Pollock said. “It is obvious that Mrs. Leong is dedicated to her craft and her students as evidenced by her professional development over the summer. Our students continue to benefit from her daily instruction and the numerous supplemental activities that she brings into her classroom.”
A video link to the YouTube video mash up of “Be a Friend” can be found at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o0PH9VQTk2Y.
-“Be a Friend” Song Lyrics Follow-
Be a Friend
Music and Lyrics by John Jacobson and Matt Huff
What would you do? What would you say?
The day when someone’s feeling down
Will you come through, say it’s okay
And try to turn their day around?
No worries at all. Just give a call.
Come rain or come shine.
I’ve got your back
And you’ve got mine.
Be a Friend
Every day in every way
Be a Friend
In all that you do and all that you say
True to the very end
That’s what I recommend
Be a Friend
Will you look down when you don’t win
The prize that you were hoping for?
Are you gonna frown or will you grin
When you got less and they got more?
Oh everyone knows there will be lows,
But we can get through
Cause, you know you’ve got me
And I’ve got you.
