Granby International Song Festival | Granby hands the microphone to Florent Vollant

Nearly six months after the controversy that opposed Samian to the Festival international de la chanson de Granby, the event welcomes four First Nations artists on Wednesday to discuss “the challenges still present today for Aboriginal communities in the music industry”. Florent Vollant, who will be part of this round table, presents some of his thoughts.

Dominic Late
The Press

What is the main challenge facing Aboriginal artists? “The main challenge, it’s exactly the same as everyone else, is to make good music,” replies Innu singer-songwriter Florent Vollant, with all the seriousness in the world, but also with a little humor.

With all the seriousness in the world because, as the Innu singer has often hammered home: Aboriginal artists are artists in their own right, who encounter the same problems as all other artists.

But Florent Vollant, 63, knows very well that it is not enough for a native songwriter to lay down the melody of the century to be extolled. “It’s not easy to be heard, no. Just being native isn’t easy,” the veteran says in an exaggeratedly playful tone, which elicits a laugh from the journalist. A laugh for which he instantly feels the need to apologize. ” Do not apologize. We have to laugh about it, otherwise, we will cry about it. »

Cry? Last March, Samian denounced on social networks that the Festival international de la chanson de Granby demanded that he present a show exclusively in French, while Nikamo, his most recent album, is entirely chanted in Anishinaabemowin. The direction of the event will specify later that the rapper had refused his request to imagine a performance composed of 80% of pieces in the language of MC Solaar.

The former member of Kashtin speaks of the coercion imposed on his comrade Samian as a “serious mistake”. “I’m aware that it’s a Francophone festival, but if we invite Aboriginal people, we have to give them the freedom to do what they want to do. Granby, they’re late. They may have 54 years of experience, but when it comes to aboriginal people, they don’t have a lot of experience. »

The fact remains that for Vollant, the discussion in which he will participate in front of industry professionals, in the company of his son and leader of the group Maten, Mathieu McKenzie, musician Patrick Boivin and the general manager of Makusham Musique, Nelly Jourdain, ” it is a beautiful invitation. There’s an intent to apologize in there, I think.”

Foreign languages ​​?

“Are indigenous languages ​​still to be considered as foreign languages ​​in 2022? These ancestral languages ​​from here have nothing threatening for French! “, pleaded Samian in March in his diatribe published on social networks.

As absurd as this idea may seem, Florent Vollant can testify to it: Aboriginal languages ​​have often been placed under the vast umbrella of foreign languages ​​by cultural institutions and Quebec radio stations, for the simple and not very good reason that they shirk to the English-French binary. “If there’s anyone here who isn’t a stranger, it’s the rest of us,” he recalls, both bewildered and amused at having to specify.

However, the last few years have seen this reductive reflex recede. Example: the Francouvertes competition, which historically only considered applications from musicians who push the note in French, welcomed for the first time in March two competitors who sing their refrains in Innu-aimun (Dan-Georges Mckenzie and Ninan).

Artists wishing to participate in the Grand Concours du Festival international de la chanson de Granby must, for the moment, present three pieces written only in French.

For Geneviève Côté, who was confirmed in her functions as general manager of the festival last Monday, it is not forbidden to imagine that a next edition of the competition will review its rules.

“An indigenous artist who would play two songs in his language and one song in French, and who would express himself in front of the public in his language and in French, I think it could be, in 2023”, advances the one who confides to having made the increased place of Aboriginal artists one of his key ideas during the job interviews that led to his appointment.

And the radio?

Makusham Musique, Florent Vollant’s club, will submit a brief to the CRTC this fall proposing that a quota of 5% of music created by Aboriginal artists (in Aboriginal languages, French or English) be imposed on stations Canadian radio stations.

ICI Musique announced for its part last week that Samian will pilot every Saturday evening Minotan!, an hour devoted entirely to Indigenous sounds. Although the initiative delights him, Florent Vollant sees such a show more as the start of something, and not as an ultimate destination.

The man, who is slowly but surely recovering from a cerebral hemorrhage that occurred in April 2021, also fears that what he calls an “indigenous fashion” does not necessarily bring about the profound changes he hopes. “It is certain that at the moment, there is a movement, and so much the better. When things are going well, everyone wants to appear next to an Aboriginal person, but when things are going badly, where is everyone? »

“We are not here just because we are indigenous, we are also here because we are good! “, launched Florent Vollant in 2019 by picking the first Félix for Indigenous Artist of the Year.

A humble and sovereign conviction that remains at the heart of its message. “I repeat without fear that we are good. We have quality, we know what to do, we are moving forward. What is good with Samian’s show is that we will be able to listen to others than those we know, but who have as much talent. Because there are many, of all genres, for all tastes. »