Elisapie bewitched the Tadoussac church with her beautiful Inuktitut covers of pop songs on Saturday evening. With Maten and Soleil Launière, the Festival de la chanson was able to make a strong place for indigenous music at the heart of its programming.
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The third day of the Song Festival took place under absolutely radiant skies. At the beginning of the afternoon, hundreds of people gathered on the sunny beach of Tadoussac Bay. Children were playing in the water, festival-goers were slowly sunbathing in the sun or listening attentively to the crazy rock of Allô Fantôme. A joyful atmosphere that exuded happiness.
In the evening, the village church was packed. Bathed in a beam of pinkish light and fine white smoke, splendidly dressed in a becoming and magnificent silver outfit with fringes, Elisapie presented herself on stage to the notes ofUummati Attanarsimahis version of Blondie’s big 1978 hit, Heart of Glass.
Graceful and of ethereal beauty, moving gently while singing, the singer-songwriter would offer a captivating show full of emotion.
After Taimangalimaaqhis version of Time After Time by Cyndi Lauper, she addressed a few words to a packed and attentive audience.
“I’m really happy to start this summer tour here. It’s a very special festival for me, which invited me from the very beginning,” underlined the Inuk singer who has just won the Contemporary Indigenous Artist of the Year award at the 2024 Juno Awards.
Credit Jay Kearney Photographer
Inviting her audience on an emotional journey, sometimes explaining why the titles she chose to favor for her covers and the personal and intimate, often familial, resonance that they evoke in her, she continued to envelop the church with his warm voice with Californiamut as well as the success of Metallica, Isumagijunnaitaungituq (the Unforgiven). “It’s probably my most personal album in the end,” she noted, specifying that the songs from Inuktitutnominated for the Polaris Prize rewarding the best Canadian album, are not just covers.
Elisapie could not leave anyone indifferent. She undeniably charmed her audience by telling her story while also offering some tracks from her latest original album, The Ballad of the Runaway Girlincluding his song Arnaq, vibrant and celebrating women, the crowd standing entirely behind them. She finally closed her show with an absolutely wonderful a cappella version of Wish You Were Here, Qaisimalaurittuqwith its three musicians, inviting the crowd to gently hum the famous Pink Floyd piece in order to disappear to finally offer as an encore the magnificent cover of Hey, That’s no Way to Say Goodbye by Leonard Cohen. A show full of sweetness, magnetism, dance and punctuated with emotions that spectators will remember for a long time.
Make way for Innu music
Just before Elisapie, it was the Innu folk rock group Maten who came to make the church vibrate with their drums and guitars. The room was full for the quartet from Mani-Utenam, on the North Shore, composed of Mathieu McKenzie, Samuel Pinette, Kim Fontaine and Louis-Philippe Boivin.
Credit Karine Ruel
They performed several songs evoking courage, opening with Nitepuatuata song created by Samuel to implore their ancestors to give them light in this earthly life during difficult times, and continuing with Tshika ui pishikun which means “we don’t give up” or get up.
“We want to meet people to share our culture and our language. Music is an important tool for memory and re-appropriating our language, Innu-aimun, our language which is losing momentum,” underlined Mathieu McKenzie, son of Florent Volant.
The endearing group offered so many original compositions from their album Utenat, ancestral songs, even a cha cha, the only Innu in the world, combined with a teasing animation full of humor between Samuel and Mathieu. On many occasions, the latter has shown himself grateful to the public and the festival for having given pride of place to indigenous music, in particular by dedicating a large Makusham to the organizing committee. The entire audience then stood up to perform this great traditional Innu dance across the nave of the church to the rhythm of the teueikan.
A few minutes later, the microbrewery pub was packed to welcome the grand prize winner of the Francouvertes 2024, Soleil Lanaudière. With strong and calm gestures, the artist from Mashteuiatsh came to discover the pieces from her first album Taueu with his very incarnate voice. A vibrant and absolutely beautiful journey.
Credit Karine Ruel
