This great Franco event will have educational value: R&B vibea concert entirely devoted to a musical genre historically neglected in Quebec, so much so that the ADISQ will wait for the 46e edition of its gala, next fall, to finally dedicate a category to it, Album of the Year – R&B/soul. This Félix and this concert are two important victories for the artisans, more and more numerous, to embrace this genre that the singer-songwriter Corneille has defended since his first album, Because we come from far awaypublished in 2002.
It’s up to them to be applauded, recognized, finally, at the Place des Festivals. Naomi, sisters Naïma and Shah Frank, young stars of the new Montreal R&B scene. The Frenchman Vacra, the Belgian neo-soul duo YellowStraps, acclaimed at home for several years. The ex-winner of the Francouvertes Rau_Ze, who recently launched his first album, Les Louanges, which was inspired by this genre in which Zaho evolves, who began his career in Montreal before going to find his audience, and the success , in France, where R&B was traditionally better appreciated than here.
“Quebec is one of the places in the world where musical creation is most abundant, but R&B is not recognized there. It’s strange, isn’t it? » asks Corneille, who campaigned behind the scenes for this recognition to finally happen. “I think there may have been a lack of education about this music [soul et R&B]. So we have to go through institutional channels to give them legitimacy. ADISQ recognized this, and this new category is a form of education for the general public. »
In the last year, in the company of representatives of ADVANCE, a pan-Canadian organization describing itself as a “collective of black professionals in the music industry”, he addressed the management of ADISQ and its annual gala to raise awareness. to the soul/R&B cause. “What is extraordinary is that it took a short time to create the category,” assures Corneille. I insist: the process was extraordinarily quick. »
The new general management of ADISQ quickly showed interest, he explains: “We didn’t have to convince them for long, as if the management was already ready for that. She simply needed a little more information to be able to better explain to her members that the gala should make room for this community of creators. Any project “with more than six songs or a total duration of more than twenty minutes, sung in French” will be considered for the Félix Album of the Year – R&B/soul award, summarizes Corneille.
A specialized jury should be formed to evaluate the submitted works: “This concern was the first to be raised, on our part as well as that of the ADISQ: musicians who put a little R&B in their songs will not be eligible. This category was created for artists who identify with the genre, born rhythm’n’blues in the American 1940s, reinvented by Motown and Stax in the 1960s, but appeared in its modern form (the Americans talk about contemporary R&B and neosoul) at the end of the 1970s and then was sculpted by funk, rap and electronic music.
“The hero of pop music”
However, assures Corneille, “many emerging artists today identify with R&B” which, in the 1990s, accompanied the golden age of American rap by giving birth to stars of the caliber of Mary J. Blige, the late Aaliyah, Brandy or even the trios TLC and Destiny’s Child, which included a certain Beyoncé. Thus, one of the challenges during its hearings with ADISQ was to be able to demonstrate that Quebec has a large enough pool of R&B artists to justify the creation of a new category and that it is sufficiently competitive.
“We hoped that the announcement of the creation of this category would send the message to all these R&B artists whose existence we know to come forward,” explains Corneille. The problem is not the offer, because it exists — and besides, the announcement did not miss its mark: since last March, a huge number of artists have contacted us for information about the category . I suspect we will have even more applications next year for this category. »
One of the artists featured inR&B vibe should be in the running for the prize: Barnev Valsaint, pioneer of contemporary R&B in Quebec, launched his first solo album last March, Who I am. It’s him, the voice of Weeping Soula Dubmatique success, released in 1997. Two years later, NoDéjà, the trio he formed with Mike Coriolan and Patrick Chevalier, launched its only album, “the first Quebec R&B album — that’s in any case how I see it,” says Corneille, obviously delighted by the unprecedented interest that the community is finally showing in R&B and soul.
“R&B is the hero of pop music, it always has been,” says Corneille. And when we talk about popular music, we’re talking about music listened to by a majority — rap, today. However, R&B came to join rap to remind people that it is good to support these forms of activism [souvent portés par le rap] by a form of gentleness. R&B has always been the romantic element of all musical cultural communities in the United States. An Al Green was always there to remind us of the importance of gentleness. »
“And in the evolution of that, we had Mary J. Blige singing the chorus of a Jay-Z song [Can’t Knock the Hustle, 1996]a Faith Evans singing with Biggie [One More Chance, 1995]they were often women, but not only that, think of Boyz II Men singing with LL Cool J [Hey Lover, 1995]. » Could R&B be the lubricant that hip-hop used to slip into popular culture? “Absolutely — it’s the unifying agent of pop!” » said Cornelius.