Looking back at my musical tastes as a child, I LOVED a great power ballad.  And I don't know if I'm alone here, but I wanted to sing quite a few songs that were performed by male characters.  (I think composers wrote way better anthems for male characters than for female characters. #notfair.)  Even listening to these songs now, I can't help getting the chills and singing along at the top of my lungs.  Listen to the three examples below and see if you get chills, too.  Side note: Although I now realize that these musicals are far from perfect, they were partly responsible for planting the seeds of human rights activism in my pre-adolescent brain.  Thanks, musical theater!  And thanks to my parents for buying non-kid-friendly theater tickets for their 7 year old!  It's never too early to learn about heartbreak, war, racism, and suicide.  (But seriously, I'm so grateful that I got to see shows other than "Annie.")  Please respond in the comments and let me know what songs you loved as a kid!  

1)  "Bui-Doi" from Miss Saigon (I'm used to the Original Cast Recording, which I played at least 298,000 times on my 1992 boom box, but this singer does an incredible performance!  And although the handheld camera shakes a ton in this video, I love hearing this crowd eat up the performance.)

2)  "Make Them Hear You" from Ragtime

3)  "If I Can't Love Her" from Beauty and the Beast

The first Citizen Workshops course offering is going to be online!  More details coming soon.  Here is a preview/Austin Kleon "show your work" snapshot of this morning's five-minute brainstorm (complete with dirty dishes).