Sybarite

Sherisse Laurence comes from Selkirk, Manitoba. Her first album, Sybarite, came out on the Loden label (SP-1003), recorded across three studios: Century 21, Roade Studios and Sound Path Productions. Seven of its ten songs were her own, among them 'Caring Company', 'The Only One I Lost', 'I'm a Woman' and 'It's Not Me You're Dreamin' About'. Around them she set 'Natural Woman', Ian Tyson's 'Yesterday's Dreams' and a medley of 'Unchain My Heart' and 'My Imagination'. She shared the arranging with Dave Shaw, Ron Paley, Alexander Graves and Jim Drynan, and the players included Paley, Reg Kelln, Ron Halldorson and percussionist Memo Acevedo.

Television found her at the same time. In the spring of 1978 CTV aired a one-hour special called Circus, hosted by Laurence and singer Cal Dodd, with Leslie Nielsen as guest ringmaster. Jugglers, trapeze artists, clowns and animals performed under a big top built inside the CFTO studios in Toronto. That November the special won a gold medal for top TV special at the International Film and Television Festival of New York. By then CTV had turned it into a weekly series, which premiered on Friday nights in September 1978. Circus was the highest-rated Canadian entertainment program of its first season, grew to a full hour the following year and was sold into syndication in the United States. Billy Van joined the cast after the first season. Laurence hosted until 1983, when Pierre Lalonde took over.

Other television work followed: appearances on The Alan Thicke Show, City Lights and The Paul Anka Show, and hosting the Miss Teen Canada pageants of 1982 and 1983. She kept writing. In 1982 Chatham, Ontario country singer Wendy Jenkins charted with 'Look Out Love', a Laurence song cut at Woodland Studios in Nashville with Lloyd Green on steel guitar. Laurence also released a Christmas single, 'It's Christmas Time Again' backed with 'Santa's Watching'. Still, in June 1983 the Toronto Star noted that the Circus host was finding it hard to make the jump to full-time singer.

A major international opportunity followed in 1986 when Luxembourg's broadcaster, RTL, chose her to represent the Grand Duchy at the Eurovision Song Contest. Her song, 'L'amour de ma vie', came from a German team: composer Rolf Soja, known for his hits with Baccara, and lyricists Frank Dostal and Alain Garcia. The studio recording was a slow, synthesizer-heavy ballad running past four minutes. For the contest it was quickened and rearranged for live orchestra, with Soja conducting.

On May 3, 1986, in the Grieg Hall in Bergen, Norway, Laurence opened the contest. Her performance was the 500th song in Eurovision history. The juries placed her third of twenty countries with 117 points, behind Belgium's Sandra Kim and Switzerland's Daniela Simmons, giving French-language songs all three top places. Ariola issued the single in Europe with an English-language version, 'The Love of My Life', and the song was included on the International Grand Prix '86 compilation.

Back in Canada she moved into country music. The independent Jennie Records label issued 'Half a Heart' (JPR-017), along with a French version, 'Mon cœur veut ignorer l'amour'. The single reached No. 31 on RPM's country chart dated October 1, 1988. Jennie followed with 'A Lesson I Don't Want to Learn' (JPR-019) and, in 1989, 'Is It Us (Is It Me/Is It You)'. In February 1990 she sang on CBC Television's Superthon '90 for the Easter Seals Society and served as one of its Toronto hosts, on a bill that also included her old Circus partner, Cal Dodd.

By the early 1990s she had settled in Muskoka, working as Sherisse Stevens. In June 1994 she was in the cast of Nunsense at the Hi Jinx and Harmony Dinner Theatre, and she returned to the show in Huntsville in 2010. She co-produced Jesus Christ Superstar, the first musical staged at Huntsville's Algonquin Theatre after it opened in 2005, and has sung Mary Magdalene in the show. In 2006 she became musical director of the Huntsville Community Choir. She has since served as director of music at Christ Church Windermere, accompanied the Muskoka Men of Song, led folk nights at the Muskoka Chautauqua festival and been nominated for YWCA Muskoka's Women of Distinction awards.

In April 2025, for the Algonquin Theatre's 20th anniversary, Jesus Christ Superstar returned to its stage. Credited now as Sherisse McGuey, she co-directed the production with music director Louis Tusz, coached the singers and played rehearsal piano.

-Robert Williston