Daniel Bélanger, Isabelle Boulay, France D’Amour, Lhasa de Sela, Jean Leloup, La Chicane, Les BB, Les Colocs, Julie Masse, Mitsou, François Pérusse: the 1990s were teeming with creativity in Quebec.
This is what we remember in the series “Quépop”, a Pixcom production which will be broadcast from Thursday, March 16, at 9 p.m., on TVA.
The project celebrating the golden age of Quebec music is led by three music lovers who lived the 1990s to the fullest, namely director Charles Gervais, screenwriter Nicolas Tittley and content producer Anne-Marie Withenshaw, for whom music “is a religion”.
“I said yes on the spot when producer Charles Lafortune called me. It was too important for me to have the opportunity to tell this musical decade”, said Anne-Marie Withenshaw in an interview with the QMI Agency.
Long before becoming a VJ at MusiquePlus in 1998, the host of “It’s just TV” was a groupie. “I was a huge ‘fan’ waiting for Jean Leloup behind the Spectrum, I went to see the Colocs ‘shows’ then I started working on TV and radio, I lived the 1990s in bottoms out!”
In addition to pouring into the nostalgia which is good with musical extracts and archives, the series clearly does useful work by allowing privileged witnesses of this time to remember important facts. It also makes it possible to make known this prosperous period to those who did not experience it. This was, of course, before the arrival of large-scale digital platforms and the internet, which screwed up the musical ecosystem all over the planet.
“In the 1980s, I loved Nathalie Simard with an unconditional love. Then, I wanted to have a perm done to look like Martine St-Clair and I listened a lot to Mitsou’s “El Mundo” album. But I really think that something happened in the 1990s with the emancipation of a Quebec sound, with Jean Leloup, Daniel Bélanger, Les Colocs, after that there were a lot of women like Isabelle Boulay, France D’Amour and Mara Tremblay,” she said.
Initially, 20 people were to be interviewed, but 45 ended up taking part, with several artists looking back on this decade through their modern eyes, thus putting into perspective the place of women, sexuality and CDs that then flowed like hot cakes.
“We wanted to avoid the trap of big nostalgia and musicography, and instead have a look at 2023. The artists have enough hindsight and humility to say that certain things did not make sense in the 1990s”, said Anne-Marie Withenshaw.
Among those taking their places in front of the lens are Sonia Benezra, Isabelle Boulay, James Di Salvio of Bran Van 3000, Alain Lapointe of BB, Mitsou, Mara Tremblay and Roch Voisine.
The series opens with “1990”, a song by Jean Leloup, perfectly setting the stage for this flourishing period during which Quebec opened up to other sounds, such as those of Lhasa de Sela and Kashtin.
Conquering the world with Céline and Roch
And, as if the Belle Province had finally decided to believe in her talent during this period, Céline Dion and Roch Voisine set out to conquer the world, paving the way for other stars from our region who subsequently seduced France and the Anglo-Saxon world.
The diva of Charlemagne, whose global sales are estimated at around 230 million copies, took advantage of the period of opulence, from 1997 to 1999, when there were the greatest number of CD sales.
“There has been a very important export of Quebec music thanks to Céline Dion and Roch Voisine, who have become the spokespersons for our culture”, according to the host, who has been on the radio for a quarter of a century. . She is currently on WKND 99.5 FM on weekdays.
It is not yet known if other decades will be spent under the magnifying glass, but Anne-Marie Withenshaw is ready if necessary.
Produced by Pixcom, in collaboration with Quebecor Content, the “Quépop” series will be broadcast starting Thursday, March 16, at 9 p.m., on TVA.