Two years after the wave of denunciations that swept over Quebec, the personalities who were the target of allegations remain for the most part banned from the Quebec artistic industry. But the general public seems to have an easier time forgetting their escapades. Proof of this is the crowds that come to Éric Lapointe’s shows this summer, or the popular support that Maripier Morin enjoys these days, with the release of the long-awaited Arlette.
The Guitar Festival in Lac-au-Saumon, in Bas-Saint-Laurent, was a clear example of this last month: Éric Lapointe and Kevin Parent were the headliners. The former pleaded guilty in the fall of 2020 to a charge of assaulting a woman; the second was dropped by his agency two years ago after being denounced on social networks for some of his actions. Results ? “We had our best year in terms of attendance in 15 years of existence”, relates the president of the festival, Michel Chevarie.
Should we see in this unexpected success a snub against the culture of banishment? Against censorship? Against an essentially Montreal artistic community that we would find too virtuous? Michel Chevarie carefully avoids answering this delicate question.
“There are so many stories that come out… Maybe in the regions, we are a little less sensitive to all that”, ventures to advance, for his part, Jean-François Côté, general manager of the Festival de l maple from Plessisville. Last March, young people from this Centre-du-Québec community raised against the arrival of Éric Lapointe. The Festival had however decided to keep the rocker in its programming, indicating that it was in any case linked to the singer by a contract signed before his arrest.
In the end, his show at the Maple Festival turned out to be a real success, despite the dissenting voices. “There were a lot of people! To be honest, maybe a little less than when he came in 2016, before all the controversy. But Éric Lapointe remains among the Quebec artists who attract the most people to festivals, along with 2Frères and the Cowboys Fringants,” continues Mr. Côté.
Community-public dichotomy
In short, some artists who have been at the heart of controversy in recent years are still making their way. The fact remains that their careers suffered from this bad press. Promoters still refuse to put them on display, although the public demands them.
Under cover of anonymity, a major theater owner told the To have to having had the opportunity to hire Kevin Parent and Yann Perreau this summer, but having preferred not to take this opportunity “for the sake of benevolence”. “Surely there would have been a lot of people, though. These artists continue to make shows, so that means that there is still an audience following them. I don’t think the people who loved them stopped loving them because they were denounced, ”he takes the trouble to add all the same.
Kevin Parent and Yann Perreau have given a few concerts here and there in recent months. Others, however, never returned to the scene following the wave of denunciations in the summer of 2020. The singer-songwriter Bernard Adamus has hardly given any sign of life for two years. The singer has no manager or record company. He is extremely discreet on his social networks, and his official website has even been taken down.
And yet, he is one of the most listened to Quebec artists in the province on streaming platforms. According to data compiled between October 15 and December 30, 2021 by the Observatory of Culture and Communications, with its 42e rank, he exceeds Fred Pellerin, Vincent Vallières and even Leonard Cohen. Éric Lapointe rises for his part to the 22nde position, succeeding in attracting a larger audience than many artists of the moment, such as Émile Bilodeau or Koriass.
It should also be noted that the most popular Quebec artist on the platforms remains the rapper Enima, who, with his well-stocked criminal record, takes pleasure in glorifying crime and pimping in his songs.
“That these artists are in this ranking even if they don’t play on the radio, that says a lot. It shows the gap between the industry and what people actually listen to. It also shows that the dust always ends up settling. This is the conclusion drawn by Pierre “Bill” St-Georges, consultant in the music industry.
What culture of banishment?
Mélanie Lemay, co-founder of the Quebec collective against sexual violence, sees it rather as the consequences of “people who say that we must separate the artist and his work”. A speech widely relayed in the media, which had the consequence of discrediting the #MeToo movement, she regrets.
“You can’t dissociate the artist from the work, but you can contextualize it. The idea is not to banish what has been done before as a creation. There is no question of deleting anything. But we have to question ourselves about the new possibilities that we grant to these artists,” she retorts.
She also has it against those who keep shouting at the “ cancel culture — the culture of banishment — whenever a personality has to withdraw from the public sphere following allegations against them. A chimera, according to her, in view of the relatively prolific careers that have continued to lead the Maripier Morin and Éric Lapointe of this world.