Astronaut Chris Hadfield performed a song from space on Monday and was expected to be joined by hundreds of thousands of students and other Canadians across the country in what he described as the "very first Canada-wide simultaneous space-to-Earth participatory broadcast."
Hadfield performed the song "I.S.S. (Is Somebody Singing)" which he co-wrote with Barenaked Ladies frontman Ed Robertson, while school groups across Canada and at the Ontario Science Centre gathered together and joined in via webcast.
Hadfield played the song from the International Space Station while Robertson and the Wexford Gleeks, a Toronto school choir, joined him in leading other schools and communities across the country.
Hadfield and the students sang as part of the 9th Music Monday celebration -- an event held each year on the first Monday of May, when students from across Canada join together for a giant sing-a-long.
"Just like exploration on a space ship, music is an amazing human adventure and something that needs to be shared, it shouldn't be kept to yourself," Hadfield said, encouraging young people to record their own performances of the song, take pictures and video and to share them with him and others via social media.
The performance marked Hadfield's final live broadcast from space before he returns home on May 13 aboard a Russian Soyuz rocket.
Holly Nimmons, executive director of the Coalition for Music Education, which organizes the event, said students and teachers across the country had been preparing for months in anticipation of Monday's event.
"That song has been prepared by music makers right across the country," Nimmons told CTV's Canada AM ahead of the broadcast.
"There are 14 different arrangements, various backgrounds and 12 translations, and there's even an American Sign Language translation so we really have gone above and beyond this year."
This year's song focuses on the notion of self-exploration, emphasizing the role music plays in that process and using Hadfield's time in space as a launch pad to look into the concept.
"Commander Hadfield himself says music lights up the neurons in his brain and we believe and know that learning music is an essential component of a well-rounded education,” Nimmons said.
“Music can lead children to develop skills -- critical and creative thinking skills, help them to thrive in a workforce -- it lights up a life.”
Canadian musicians Luke Doucet and Serena Ryder have also penned songs for the high-profile music event over the years.
