Last week, Graham McRae was just an elementary school music teacher in Surrey.

On Monday, he played hooky with his principal's permission.

That's because his phone was ringing off the hook, and a steady parade of media were filing through the front door of his Burnaby home.

McRae, 48, is one of five semi-finalists in the search for a new theme song to Hockey Night In Canada.

The publicity is in stark contrast to the previous three weeks when he was sworn to secrecy by CBC.

"My wife knew, and my four-year-old daughter suspected (something was up) in a four-year-old's way. Keeping it secret was an extremely weird kind of thing. I felt like I was living the life of a double agent and I had this major secret that nobody was able to find out."

By the time he was whisked away from his Surrey school in a limousine last Friday afternoon, the cat was out of the bag. The next night he appeared on live television after his song, The Eleventh Hour, was introduced.

"I rehearsed that line – I probably shouldn't tell you this – for about six hours," he said of his explanation of what he was trying to do with his song. When told he looked calm and articulate, he laughed and said, "I'm a good actor."

McRae, who teaches at David Brankin and Panorama Park elementaries, submitted five songs for the competition, which has a prize of $100,000 plus half of ongoing royalties, with the other half to be invested in minor hockey.

More impressively, he only started composing seriously two summers ago after toying with it off and on for the last 20 years.

"I always thought 'I can't make a living at it.' It never made viable economic sense to pursue it."

The CBC launched the competition last summer after it did not renew the rights to the original song by Dolores Clayman. CTV subsequently purchased it for use in perpetuity.

McRae broke down Clayman's song into its core components and worked from that framework.

"I wanted a lot of energy but I wanted that energy produced in a way that still was anthemic, kind of a call to arms."

He also tried to replicate the fact that the original wasn't tied to a particular generation or style.

Unlike his first four submissions which were knocked off quickly, Eleventh Hour took about three weeks of agonizing over every note.

"I wanted a kind of generic sound and yet it still had to be upbeat and it had to be uplifting and it had to jive with that heavy hockey rhythm I'd created."

After recording a version on his computer, which emulates all the instruments he needed, he posted it to the contest website. When it was chosen, the song was recorded over 10 hours at the CBC's Toronto studio, with producer Bob Rock presiding.

Recording with Rock was "the trip of a lifetime" with another highlight coming when Rush guitarist and founder Alex Lifeson showed up to contribute a guitar solo.

McRae, a Rush fan himself, was agog.

"For me, it was... a hero from my past all of a sudden emerged in front of me and was playing on my song. Not just playing on it but contributing his own ideas.

"Of course, I was on cloud nine, but the little pragmatist within was saying, 'my song has a very busy palette and where is he going to find space?' So his approach was like nothing I'd ever seen before. Instead of him trying to find the little openings where he might be able to pick something out, he just bulldozed his way through it with this incredible rhythm. And it worked beautifully."

Now McRae is on pins and needles awaiting the results of a vote for the final two. He's trying to improve his chances by getting as much media coverage as he can before the voting deadline on Tuesday, Oct. 7. The final two will be announced Oct. 9 and then be subject to another vote ending on Oct. 10. The winner will be announced on Hockey Night In Canada on Saturday.

To hear all the semi-finalists and to vote, visit http://www.anthemchallenge.cbc.ca/