New Zealand school goes viral for Stairway To Heaven performance

A school in New Zealand has gained a whole lot of attention online for a performance of the Led Zeppelin classic, Stairway To Heaven. Their impressive rendition of the track was later shared online, earning them over 180,000 views.

St Andrew’s College in Christchurch performed the song as part of a prize giving ceremony at Wolfbrook Arena on 26 November in front of 3,500 people.

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As reported by 1 News, the performance was carried out by year 13 pupils Grace Burnett (lead vocals) and Mia Fraser (lead guitarist), as well as year 12 student James McIver on the acoustic guitar. They were accompanied by more than 100 musicians, from across the school’s rock band, orchestra, senior choir, and jazz band.

The school’s head of music, Duncan Ferguson, has since commented on the footage going viral. Speaking to the outlet, he says, “The response has really blown us away … It’s surprising how many people overseas are commenting on it, and we’re hearing from other people not connected to the school, in the different countries, that are really blown away by it.”

He adds, “This year’s year 12s and 13s, a lot are good guitarists and drummers, and there’s really an emphasis on rock with them. So we wanted to do something which could blend that and use our school orchestra and our choir.

“This arrangement that we came across is by the band Heart, who did it as part of a tribute concert to Led Zeppelin… We got it arranged for our orchestra and it was the right piece of music for the right year group, so it came together really well.”

Watch the performance below:

Back in October, Robert Plant gave his first performance of the famous track in 16 years after a fan donated a large “six-figure” sum to charity.