Kalan Porter plays Scrabble with his grandma in the new music video for his upcoming single Hurray!, easily the best tune the young Canadian Idol alumnus has released.
So when we had the chance to sit down with the 21-year-old for lunch, we figured a game of Scrabble would be a great way to get him to open up. Even though the Medicine Hat-born singer claims to have played the board game only a few times before, he was a great sport, agreeing to a “first to 200 points” match.
Here’s how the game went:
Turn 1: Kalan draws the letter “B” and gets to start off the game, making “Retro” for 12 points. I follow with “Mate” to match his 12. He orders the first of four cups of coffee he’ll be drinking in the next 90 minutes.
I ask him, is it just me or did your voice get deeper?
“I think it might have,” he says. “It’s just natural, I was 18 when I was on Idol.”
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Turn 2: Kalan follows that with “pair,” which scores him a paltry six points. I use his “P” to make “bicep” for 22 points.
Kalan orders a steak salad and I get a steak sandwich. We begin talking about girlfriends and how they influence what you eat. “When I’m in Toronto and I’m with my girlfriend, she eats a lot of salad, so I do the same,” he says. “When I’m on the road, it’s a lot worse.” I ask him, if he has one of those “Idol romances”? “No, no, no,” he says with a laugh. “It’s no show-mance.”
Turn 5: After Kalan makes the word “bang” (nine points) using the “B” from my “bicep,” I make “hinge” with his “g” over the triple word score for 27. The score sits at 95 for me, 53 for Kalan.
Kalan talks about how he’s digging the new Alicia Keys single, and this somehow brings us to talking about award shows. So, have you seen the Britney meltdown on the MTV Awards?
“No, I haven’t,” he says. “I feel kind of bad for her. I’m really small-scale, and I know how it feels to have people say things about you, I can’t imagine what it’s like for her. And it’s really easy to get caught up in stuff, especially if you don’t have right people around you.”
Turn 6: What’s interesting about this isn’t the board anymore, but the fact that a sweet, elderly lady walks up to our table, apologizes for interrupting, but wants Kalan to know that she thinks he’s a “wonderful young man” for everything he’s done for his mother, who was diagnosed with breast cancer which is, thankfully, in remission. Kalan took time off from his music career to spend time with her, and it sounds like it was never a tough decision to make.
I ask him how she’s doing and he says “much better, thanks for asking.” We talk about it a couple of times in the conversation, but he never says the word “cancer,” only referring to it as “the incident.” It’s completely understandable.
Is it weird, I ask him, to have complete strangers come up to you and talk about intimate details about your life? “It used to be,” he says. “But I’m getting used to it. And people have been really nice, really supportive.”
Turn 7: Kalan makes the word “pogo” for 11 points, and I manage to use a triple word score to squeeze in “wee” for 24 points.
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