Alberta boy sings his way onto new Netflix series Motown Magic
Zacary James was born a few generations too late for Motown.
But that hasn't stopped the 11-year-old singer from hitting the perfect notes on a classic from the 1970s catalog.
For his latest cover, the Edmonton boy sang the lead vocals for ABC by the Jackson 5.
The song will serve as the theme song for Josh Wakely's new family animated children's series, Motown Magic, which premieres globally on Netflix next week.
"The show is about a boy named Ben, and he lives in a town called New York. You know where that is," Zacary said with a giggle in an interview Thursday with CBC Radio's Edmonton AM.
"The purpose of the show is, him and his friends are trying to bring back Motown to life.
"It's about rediscovering Motown."
Zacary usually sings with his brothers as the trio the Melisizwe Brothers. He never auditioned for the series but was sought out by producers.
The brothers got a call in December and were invited to take a whirlwind trip to California.
"They'd been searching all around the world, they were looking for vocals and they heard about us, and so they flew us down to L.A. to record ABC," Zacary said.
'It was crazy."
The Melisizwe Brothers are actually the James brothers, Zacary and his brothers, Marc, 15, and Seth,12.
They live in Sherwood Park but haven't spent much time at home the last few years.
The Motown Magic gig is just the latest in a long string of successes for the brothers, who have sung their way from YouTube to Broadway and beyond.
They've performed in Times Square in New York City, on the Ellen DeGeneres Show, and toured around the world.
Their online performances have been viewed billions of times.
'It's a dream'
It all started with the brothers performing Jackson 5 songs in the basement of their Sherwood Park home. In 2016, parents Mark and Sherry started posting home videos online, to share with family and friends. Soon, the boys became sensations.
It makes sense that Motown has them in the spotlight again, Seth said. They grew up on it.
"We're really big fans of Motown, because we like we grew up in that kind of background," he said.
"We grew up listening to a lot of the Jackson 5, Michael Jackson, Smokey Robinson, and a lot of famous old-time singers."
The brothers will fly back to L.A. for the series premiere on Nov. 20, and are happy to share the spotlight.
"It's a dream to be able to use our music to do extraordinary things right," Marc said. "Music makes us happy, and we want to use that to kind of create a change."
