After surprising everyone with the success of their novelty hit “Coton ouaté,” the band Bleu Jeans Bleu unexpectedly won the Group of the Year Félix during the ADISQ Sunday night gala on Oct. 27, 2019. The band’s video for the hit has already racked up more than 3.5 million views on YouTube, and they’re not newcomers on the scene – they released two albums before their latest, Perfecto, which changed everything for them. We spoke with Claude Cobra, the band’s frontman, and his colleagues, when they visited the Gala press room after winning the coveted trophy.
Photo by Marie-Michèle Bouchard
Photo by Marie-Michèle Bouchard
ADISQ 2019: Roxane Bruneau wins Song of the Year
Story by Eric Parazelli | Tuesday October 29th, 2019
The winner of the ADISQ Song of the Year Félix Award is decided a joint vote from the public and an industry jury, and this year it went to Roxane Bruneau, for her song Des p’tits bouts de toi during the Sunday night gala on Oct. 27, 2019. Bruneau’s career has been marked by the relentless, dedicated support of her fans, whom she affectionately calls her “cocos.” In the gala press room, she talked with SOCAN about this special relationship which, by her own admission, is the principal reason for her success.
Photo by Marie-Michèle Bouchard. Left to right / De gauche à droite : Pierre Lapointe, Alexandra Stréliski, Dominique Fils-Aimé, Les Louanges
ADISQ: Fair Compensation for Creators: What do we do now?
Story by Eric Parazelli | Monday October 28th, 2019
SOCAN member Pierre Lapointe hosted the Premier Gala de l’ADISQ on Oct. 23, 2019, at Montréal’s MTELUS, and he’s embarked on a mission to remind the relevant government agencies that it’s urgent to act if we want music creators to be compensated fairly for their work.
He talked about this when he appeared on the popular talk show Tout le monde en parle as well as on the French CBC’s ICI Première station, during his opening number at the Premier Gala de l’ADISQ, and during his presentation of the Album of the Year – Pop award at the Sunday night gala.
We caught up with him in the press room of the Premier Gala and asked him to explain his position, and offer concrete measures to break the deadlock that has gripped the Québec music ecosystem for several years. This gridlock is in part caused by new technologies, and the shift in the ways consumers listen to music with the arrival of streaming platforms, as well as the refusal of DSPs to give back a reasonable portion of their revenue to creators who feed them the cultural content on which they depend.
We also followed up on this question with other SOCAN members to ask them where they stand on this issue. What do we do now? How do we get more revenue? Is it possible to make a living as a musician in 2019? You’ll hear answers from Robert Nelson, Les Louanges, KNLO, Claude Bégin, Dominique Fils-Aimé, Alexandra Stréliski, Millimetrik, Elisapie, Wesli, and Hubert Lenoir.