Long-awaited moment in Quebec: one of the last restrictions of the pandemic was lifted on Monday. Karaoke bars and nightclubs were able to reopen their doors to night owls, after more than a year of ban. The duty went to meet Montrealers who were seething with impatience to show off their new dance steps and push the envelope with their friends.
Jacques Lafleur slowly climbs onto the Normandy stage, stands behind the plexiglass screen, carefully installs his microphone cover, removes his mask and takes a breath. The first chords of “It’s not going to change the world” by Joe Dassin are heard and Jacques embarks with a confident voice, without any false note. The 68-year-old man, a karaoke regular for almost 10 years, came with his friend Christian Cherrier on Monday evening. “We often came here before the pandemic, once or twice a week. We couldn’t wait to be able to sing again. We did not hesitate for a second when we knew that it was authorized, we had to be there tonight, ”launches the latter, who was impatiently waiting to sing a Celine Dion song in turn.
Celine Dion’s repertoire has also been a resounding success at the beginning of the evening, not without displeasing the public more cheerful than ever. Installed at the bar, some customers who had not yet dared to take the microphone sang at the top of their lungs the words of the Quebec diva, their eyes riveted on the screen in front of them. The atmosphere was definitely celebrating. “We managed to get through, the gang,” said a singing lover, putting down her microphone.
During the passage of To have toshortly before 9 p.m., the bar Le Normandie was already full. “People started calling to book as soon as the government announced the good news in early November,” said owner Pascal Lefebvre, relieved to see his establishment come back to life. The past few months have been tough, he says. The place had to turn into a simple bar and lost loyal customers who came above all to push the bill. “It was high time it started again. We were blamed a lot but it was Kirouac the problem, ”he insists, referring to this Quebec bar at the origin of an outbreak of several cases of COVID-19. Subsequently, all the karaoke bars had to close just a few months after they reopened.
On stage, the singers took the microphone one after the other, without wasting a minute, divided between excitement and feverishness. In the turn of Sarah Leblanc-Gosselin, the register has completely changed, the 29-year-old actress having decided to interpret Dido’s “White flag”. I really sing a lot in life. It makes me feel good, ”she confides, once back at her table with her friends. “It was difficult to wait that long. So I made covers on Facebook to pass the time. But there is nothing better than going back to the stage of a karaoke ”, she insists.
A few streets further on, you had to elbow your way to hope to find a place in Vieux Saint-Hubert. At the tables, no room for discussions, the customers came for only one thing: to sing. “To drink, to drink, because my throat is on fire. Drink to drink for unhappy couples, ”they shouted in unison, waddling on their seats to the rhythm of the lyrics to this Frisky Cowboys hit. Meanwhile, the manager, Dominic, alternated roles at an incredible speed, going from doorman scanning sanitary passports, to picking up empty pitchers of beer to end up as party host, singing the song on occasion. “Big night today, we’re very busy,” he says between two missions, visibly much happier to live this moment, than exhausted by the magnitude of the task.
On the Quai des brumes side, in the Plateau Mont-Royal, the public was more timid in front of the performance of the musical group Skatton Club. “We feel a little embarrassment in the room. But we had to go dancing even if we felt quite observed, ”says Amélie Côté, who came to wiggle with her friend Yanic Viau. “It has nothing to do with listening to Ska without dancing,” insists the latter, expressing his joy at being able to return to a dance floor again. “This group has come to play several times this fall. We passed our turn, because we could not see ourselves sitting on a chair with that music. It feels good to let off steam and find all these sensations. “
A pleasure shared by the members of the Skatton Club group. “It takes that energy from us. It’s fantastic to find that again. I want to see it as a rebirth ”, confides during his“ union break ”the singer of the group, André Désilet. If he admits having had “at least” the chance to make representations during the last months, he does not hide having found the atmosphere a little gloomy while the public was tied to his chair.
Upstairs, the evening started relatively early for a Monday, when at 10:30 p.m. several dozen people took to the Rockette dance floor. To the tunes of Travel Travel, many of them moved their bodies as if the pandemic had never existed. Of course, there is still the mask, which the dancers wore assiduously on their faces, no longer even bothering to take it off when taking a selfie to immortalize this moment.
“The mask is not ideal, but if it takes that to be able to reopen and dance, we will do it”, drops Andréanne, 26 years old. She came to dance at the Rockette, although she works early Tuesday morning, with her friends Marine and Andréanne. The latter had a professional interview the next day. “We’re the same here, if that’s not proof that we really wanted to dance,” she laughs. We were very bored of dancing. Alone, in her living room, it’s really not the same thing. We had to be there for the first dance in Montreal. “
A few hundred meters further on, on Saint-Laurent Avenue, the atmosphere was very different at the Belmont, although just as intoxicating. Lit by fluorescent lights, the dancers jumped in place to the rhythm of electronic music. “It was about time Montreal! », Shouts among the crowd Benoît, 20, recalling with bitterness that the metropolis is one of the last to have reopened its nightclubs on the planet. ” I could not wait. The pandemic arrived shortly after I turned 18, I never really could take advantage of it, ”says the young man, determined to make up for lost time.