She would have moved her wedding date to open for Reba. Luckily, when her agent asked if she wanted the gig, all she had to do was find her way out of the dress that was halfway over her head with a stuck zipper.
Victoria Banks is one happy Canadian Country Music Female Artist of the Year, Songwriter of the Year award winner to be getting this shot.
Banks will open for Reba at CN Centre on Oct. 31.
"My booking agent said I have a request for you to open for Reba, but I didn't want to say yes until I checked with you and I was like, What!? Are you crazy?" she laughed. "If I was getting married I would move it so I could open for Reba."
Banks has only ever opened for male stars until now.
"I just realized this is the first time I am opening for a woman," Banks said with surprise. "I've opened for Johnny Reid (when he came to Prince George in 2009) and opened for Randy Travis and Lone Star and Nitty Gritty Dirt Band but I've never opened for a woman and way to set the bar high! If you know someone who only needs to go by one name, you know she's a superstar."
Banks said she's been listening to Reba's music for years and has worn out many of her CDs.
"I think that as a woman in country music and as a songwriter I have learned a lot by listening to Reba's records," Banks explained. "She has always chosen fantastic songs and is completely fearless when it comes to the subject matter that she'll sing about and I love that. She gets out there and she'll sing about a prostitute or about HIV and all the stuff that people would never touch - she will put it out there. I'm really excited to meet her and be a fly on the wall backstage and see how things work for her onstage. She is just a master of performance, too."
Banks said it is the subtle nuances that Reba has perfected that lends itself to her performance.
"She looks a certain way, turns her body or moves a certain way and the whole audience is just enraptured," Banks said. "So I am looking forward to seeing that in person."
Banks was a songwriter for a decade before she chose to be a singer.
"I never really had the aspiration to be a singer," said Banks. She would go to the Bluebird cafe in Nashville where songwriters would showcase their new tunes and people would ask her if they could buy her CD and she never had one.
"There are a lot of songs that didn't find homes with other artists and they are ones that I wanted to share, so the record (When You Can Fly) was made from that perspective where it's all about the songs and I want it to continue to be that way," said Banks.
Banks opened for Johnny Reid last year and she remembers stepping off the plane at the Prince George airport to the fresh scent of evergreens.
"I know people have said the smell of the pulp milll is pretty bad, but I didn't smell it," said Banks. "I smelled this perfume and it's stuff like that that would have been lost on me if I did this when I was younger. I am more of a stop-and-smell-the-roses type of person now, and so, I am really enjoying the whole experience of being out there on the road."
And the dress she had on halfway over her head with the zipper stuck was the blue number she wore to the CCMAs where she won the two prestigious awards for Female Artist and Songwriter of the Year. It must be her lucky dress.
"I never thought I would be opening for Reba McEntire or standing on stage giving acceptance speeches at the CCMAs," said Banks, who thinks the whirlwind experiences she's been having makes her a better songwriter. "I''m never giving that dress away. I'll have it redesigned into something I can wear all the time."
Banks will offer up her fans' favourite songs as well as some new tunes she knows the Prince George audience will appreciate.
"I have a new murder story song," said Banks. "I know Reba fans will appreciate that one."
Check out more of this lovely Canadian artist at www.victoriabanks.net.
