Behind the scenes | All the Christmases by Isabelle Boulay

Isabelle Boulay offers a nice present to the public with Waiting for Christmasa show with a carefully chosen repertoire that she will perform in nine theaters over the coming weeks. We met her during a rehearsal with her group of musicians, whom she kindly calls the Boulay brothers.

It’s Halloween, it’s 22 degrees Celsius and the fall colors are still blazing. But inside the Hector-Charland theater in L’Assomption, in Lanaudière, the atmosphere is completely different: in a bluish lighting where the silhouettes of fir trees and stars are outlined, Isabelle Boulay sings Christmas, the strength of hope, the beauty of sharing, the melancholy of distance and the cold of winter.

It was seeing the end of his tour coming From the Americas and Francewhich lasted a little over a year and a half, that Isabelle Boulay decided to create this Christmas show. So she asked her group of musicians if they wanted to continue playing with her a little longer, just to prolong the pleasure.

“It’s a gift I give myself,” she confides in the dressing room during a break. We are good together, we have the same musical tastes and we built something together. It’s as if I was a site manager and I said hey, the house we made was fun, are you making another one? »

The image of the construction manager cannot be better chosen, because this is exactly the role that the singer plays. With three decades of stage experience, she leads the rehearsal with flexibility and skill, checks if all the musicians are comfortable with a precise sequence, discusses with them the order of the songs, tests an intro, demonstrates her satisfaction. “We’re good together!” “, she tells them.

In short, she’s the captain. “But I’m asking for opinions!” », would like to point out the performer, who has also often worked with directors. “I love it. But now, it’s as if the show was already written. »

A look

Waiting for Christmasthis is the look at this time of year from “Isabelle Boulay de Sainte-Félicité”, who loves the bustling weeks of Advent, and who has experienced happy Christmases… and less happy ones.

Some of the songs from the show will be taken from his album Waiting for Christmas released in 2019, but not only that: the performer is a traveling jukebox, and she chose 21 which are not necessarily Christmas songs, but whose spirit evokes that of the Holidays.

In rehearsal, we also heard as much Blue Christmas d’Elvis who The Labrador by Claude Dubois, including the Christmas classic What is the child et The skater by Julien Clerc, which she sings while waltzing. “Never underestimate the therapeutic effect of skating! », Says the singer, while her musicians laugh.

Still: you have to believe yourself a lot, no, to interpret with such interiority as we heard it that day The child on the drum ? She smiles.

“I have all the elements in me. If it wasn’t me who experienced them, it was someone pretty close. I’m like an emotional sponge: I can sing, but I know even more… guessing human beings. Or love them. »

Essential service

Isabelle Boulay conceived her show as a sort of essential service, to respond to the gloomy and anxiety-provoking spirit of the times. “Before being a singer, I participate in the social fabric. » Beyond the comfort that she can bring thanks to her warm and deep voice, she hopes above all to offer an enlightening moment.

And cohesion, through a repertoire that determines itself almost by itself. “The show makes its own law,” she explains. So much so that she sometimes has to give up pieces that she held on to from the start. “Strength in numbers is greater than a whim,” she says, explaining that every song has its own say. “I had nothing to do with it!” “, she said, laughing.

“The songs speak to me about something. They are telling me a story that will happen through them. »

Little practical question from an admiring observer: does she interpret them all by heart? She admits to now using a teleprompter — but even in rehearsal, she barely looks at it. And we only saw her get confused in her words once.

It is to avoid a sudden memory lapse that she uses one, but there is no question of her looking at it all the time. “I would find myself unbearable myself!” », Says the singer, who has always had a phenomenal memory. “You ask Dan Bigras, he read his words in my eyes when he forgot them! »

In fact, the teleprompter is above all a tool that allows her to take the song where she wants. “It’s like a score for musicians. It allows me to be more with people. To take a song somewhere, well, I don’t have to have a problem with the text. »

Preparation

It only took two weeks for Isabelle Boulay and her team to put together this show, from the first rehearsals focused on the arrangements of the songs, through the ordering of the sets and the development of the lighting, up to the two intensive days rehearsal at L’Assomption at the end of October. She also left for France in the days that followed, and returned for the first performance which will take place on Friday in Sainte-Thérèse. On Sunday, it will already be Montreal’s turn, at the Théâtre Maisonneuve at Place des Arts.

“Many artists practice their shows for months before finding themselves in front of a large venue. I have never done that. I never made it past eighth. » She likes to live dangerously and “scare” herself, but it’s clear that the captain of the ship is in control.

If there are only nine performances, it is because she decided too late and fewer theaters were available. But the beauty of it is that this timeless show can be repeated over the next few years if she so desires.

“It will exist, yes. We’ll have it done and it will have a life of its own. Each show is an invention, which comes from I don’t really know where. » We try an answer like that, and we don’t fear being wrong: from the heart.

The tour Waiting for Christmas begins on November 22 in Sainte-Thérèse and will be in Montreal on November 24.

Check the artist page for all show dates