CANADIAN YOUTUBE CHANNEL WITH OVER 60 BILLION WORLDWIDE VIEWS TAKES ITS CONTENT ON CROSS-COUNTRY TOUR
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Caitlin Claessens’ weekly programs on Super Simple Songs reach a subscriber base of 45 million people.
Since launching in 2006, the massively successful Canadian YouTube channel has logged over 60 billion global views.
Its content, including the Claessens-hosted Caitie’s Classroom, Move With Caitie and Imagination Time, is available on YouTube, Amazon Prime Video, Spotify and the Super Simple website and app.
Unless you happen to be in the age one- to six-year-old demographic the channel targets, you might have missed the major announcement that Caitie’s Super Simple Songs Surprise Party is on its first live tour of Western Canada. The tour launches March 17 at the Massey Theatre in New Westminster from 3:30 to 5 p.m. — tickets on sale at masseytheatre.com .
“ Super Simple Songs was started by two Canadian teachers working in Japan who wanted to incorporate music into the classroom as a teaching tool for very young learners,” said the Toronto-based Claessens. “But a lot of the material was either too unfamiliar or didn’t include the content they were looking for in the curriculum. A nursery rhyme like Twinkle Twinkle Little Star doesn’t include much in the way of helpful vocabulary and phrases for speaking English.”
Founders Devon Thagard and Troy McDonald hit upon the idea of producing original children’s songs with learning in mind. First recorded on CD and shared with other educators, the two began uploading teaching advice and music content to YouTube in the early days of the platform.
When they noticed kids were watching, too, they started uploading content specifically for them including everything from the Top 20 Farm Songs to how to say Hello Around the World.
Naturally, it’s all set to a catchy hook.
“Songs like Are You Hungry? or I Like Broccoli grew from teachers using it in class to online animation and puppets to live action, which is where I joined the party,” Claessens said. “I came from a performance background doing a lot of children’s music classes in schools and hired on when Super Simple wanted to expand into the brand-new live streaming taking off on YouTube.
“Caitie’s Classroom came out of that, where I could interact in real time with the audience, which was really, really cool.”
Along with Caitie’s Classroom, Claessens hosts the Imagination Time podcast and the Move With Caitie physical activity program. Other Super Simple products range from the animated Rhymington Square, with its cartoon stories about Lucky the Rubber Ducky, to singing Super Simple Puppets.
There seems to be an endless amount of content built around Super Simple Songs.
“We like to joke that the Super Simple universe is a bit like the MCU (Marvel Cinematic Universe) where different characters are connected in different ways,” she said. “So if you’re a fan of the The Bumble Nums, you might see little Easter eggs in certain music videos relating to other material. We are always creating new characters and shows and ideas, and it’s grown exponentially over the years.”
Claessens says the team at the Toronto-based digital first creator Skyship Entertainment isn’t as big as you might expect given all the output.
“We been able to create so much with a skeleton crew for the most part,” she said. “For a long time, we did everything with three people. I wrote, directed, produced and performed, the director of photography was also the editor and the sound engineer handled sound and sets. The live show is something new, so we are expanding and learning new things again.”
Caitie’s Super Simple Songs Surprise Party live is designed to be a first concert experience with “not-too-loud” sound and interactive elements running at a total of 90 minutes.
She says real-life elements with her and giant puppet Tobee will be joined by digital characters from the Super Simple “universe,” such as The Bumble Nums and Finny the Shark in interactive formats.
“It’s very cool how we’ve got the characters up on a screen at the show so they appear like they usually do, rather than a costumed mascot presentation,” she said. “Using technology, we can bring them to life, asking questions and responding to the audience using a complex system of cues in the show. It’s very cool and you can’t do that on YouTube, so we are excited to see the reception.”
Claessens says the goal of the live show is an experience that is high quality but not surprising. Understanding the young audience can be very excitable, no stadium pyrotechnics or blinding lights are ever going to be incorporated into the performance.
Caitie’s Super Simple Songs Surprise Party is broken down into three parts. The first act runs about 40 minutes, followed by an intermission, with a much shorter second act. The thinking behind the pacing is simple: make sure everyone has fun, but doesn’t get too fidgety.
For more information on the tour and ticket sales visit supersimple.com .
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2026-03-13T13:32:17Z