A new prize awarded by students will be presented at the 44th Gala de l’ADISQ. The announcement was made on Monday by the Quebec Association of the Record Industry (ADISQ) and the Intercollegiate Network of Sociocultural Activities of Quebec (RIASQ).
The College Song of the Year Award will be presented for the first time on November 2 at the Industry Gala.
It will reward an emerging artist for one of their songs, chosen by a few hundred CEGEP students. The jury “will have to show active listening and critical judgment” to designate the winning piece. The winning artist will leave with a $5,000 grant, offered by the RIASQ.
“With this new project, we are exposing young people to local culture and we hope to give them a thirst for discovery and open their eyes to the richness of our music,” said RIASQ director general Maxime Burgoyne-Chartrand, by way of press release.
The experience will be supervised by a person in charge of the project, and the students will be given an educational guide, a listening sheet and analysis tools, it is written on the RIASQ website. At the end of this listening period, ten plays will be qualified for a “national deliberation”.
A spokesperson from each cégep will then participate in a debate in Montreal to elect the winning song. Finally, two students will be invited to go on stage to reveal the identity of the recipient artist.
It was ADISQ that pre-selected the 25 titles in the running, choosing “up-and-coming artists with only two albums or less in their career”.
Among them are five indigenous musicians or groups. Laura Niquay (Moteskano), Natasha Kanapé (A troubled horizon), NINAN (Innu auass), OktoEcho(niki pawatin) and Scott-Pien Picard (Shipekunua) are on the list.
Other names, qualified as the next generation, are however already well known to the Quebec public. Hubert Lenoir (SECRET), Praise (Pavement), Roxane Bruneau (If they ever look for me), or Clay and Friends (Move your thang), also have a chance to win the prize.