Ottawa’s annual Canada Day Party is happening online instead, featuring performances from Canadian musicians such as Alanis Morissette and Avril Lavigne, among others.
Another notable Canadian pop sensation (albeit fictional) is Robin Sparkles. The former life of Colbie Smulder’s Robin Scherbatsky on the CBS sitcom How I Met Your Mother is best known for her hit single, “Let’s Go To The Mall.”
While growing up in Canada, Robin became a 90s pop sensation and dressed in 80s garb (Robin insisted that Canada was a decade behind on trends). She embarked on a year-long tour in malls, performing her hit single “Let’s Go To The Mall.” Her followup tune, “Sandcastles in the Sand,” tanked. Robin didn’t pursue stardom after her stint as Robin Sparkles. She moved to New York and became a reporter instead.
Mention of Robin’s former life first appears in How I Met Your Mother in the second season, when she actively avoids going to the mall. After her friends question her motives and do some digging, Barney (Neil Patrick Harris) finds an old music video of Robin performing as a teenager.
Even though Robin tried to put her bubblegum pop star days begin her, her friends wouldn’t let it go. Ted (Josh Radnor) even had “Let’s Go To The Mall” as his ringtone for a while.
Towards the end of the series, Robin did embrace her Canadian past. She belted out “Let’s Go to The Mall” at a karaoke night at New York’s Canadian bar, Hoser Hut. She also walked down the aisle when marrying Barney to an instrumental take of “Sandcastles in the Sand.”
Smulders recently updated “Let’s Go To The Mall” with a quarantine friendly twist. On May 7, the actor shared an Instagram video where she sang, “Let’s All Stay at Home.” The tune, updated by HIMYM series creators Craig Thomas and Carter Bays, features the catchy tune and talks about government mandated stay-at-home orders.
“We can’t go to the mall, I’m so sorry,” Smulders belts out with Sparkles’ Canadian accent as she tickles the ivories. She also sings, “I have to go to Zoom school soon, at least until we’re all immune,” and “Dad says I’m too young to date, guidelines say we have to wait.”
How I Met Your Mother is available to stream on Hulu.
A post shared by Cobie Smulders (@cobiesmulders) on May 7, 2020 at 1:35pm PDT
