It was written in the sky like the green swirls of the Northern Lights: singer-songwriter Soleil Launière won the 28th on Monday eveninge edition of the Les Francouvertes showcase competition, at the end of a faultless run during which she went from one round to another without leaving the top of the previous charts. Lively and musically diverse, this final evening at Club Soda concluded with MC Sensei H in second position, with cowboy-rocker Loïc Lafrance arriving on the last step of the podium.
Originally from Mashteuiatsh, on the banks of Lac-Saint-Jean — or Pekuakami in the Innu language, it is also the title of one of the songs in her repertoire —, Soleil Launière thus marks the history of the Francouvertes by becoming the first indigenous musician to win top honors. The Francouvertes organization, which highlights music performed in French, announced in 2022 that it would open the competition to First Nations artists in 2022 speaking in their languages.
Today a Montrealer, Soleil Launière sings in Innu-aimun, but does not speak the language of her ancestors; however, this form of uprooting, multiplied by the distance that separates her from her native community, is at the heart of her musical proposal, while, during her singing turn, she responds to the (pre-recorded) voice of the Innu poet Joséphine Bacon . Drawing on her experience in the theater, the musician took to the Soda stage with the confidence she is known for, overcoming a messy sound system that made her lose the very intimate contact that she and her orchestra were able to establish in the smallest room of the Lion d’Or.
Where rapper Sensei H scored additional points compared to Soleil Launière, it was by making changes to her performance, as she did during the semi-finals. Launière offered more or less the same turn of song at each stage; Sensei H was more daring, moving from a quartet formula to an effective duo concert with his double bassist and composer; Monday evening, she combined the two formulas.
The musician, however, does not quite have the festive repertoire, which requires even more skill on the microphone. The universe that Sensei H depicts is far from rosy, but it is in any case delivered with firmness, its very rhythmic prosody commanding admiration. Just like her way of addressing the public, the endearing candor she displayed when she chose to tackle the delicate subject of the discomfort that leads to suicidal thoughts, and the way in which she herself had to compose with these.
Loïc Lafrance was undoubtedly the one who had the most to gain from moving from the little Golden Lion to Club Soda: his song, which presses all the buttons on the Quebec Rock dashboard (country, rock, a little Plume here, psychedelic Charlebois there), is built to stir up crowds, and he himself gives each of his concerts as if he were playing in front of hundreds of people on an outdoor stage in the middle of July. Disappointed, amusing, amused himself to still be there at this final of the Francouvertes, in his “cowboy in the magazines” costume, to quote the title of one of his compositions.
The best thing about this robust and nourishing finale is that, regardless of the color of the medal, each of the competitors contributes in their own way to the dynamism of our music scene and already seems ready to make a career. As champion, Soleil Launière leaves with the biggest prizes: a $15,000 scholarship, courtesy of sponsor SiriusXM, studio hours allowing her to cook up the rest of her album Taueu published last fall, a tour assistance grant offered by SODEC, and his name on the poster for the Drummondville Poutine Festival, among others.