A month after winning the first Grammy award of his career, for best American roots music performance, for the song Eve Was Black, singer-songwriter Allison Russell returns to give two concerts in her native Quebec, Friday in Montreal and Saturday in the capital. How about giving her a triumph when she takes the stage? “This victory was as astonishing as it was surprising,” the musician tells us. I think of the great Mavis Staples, who had to wait until she was 77 years old before receiving this award, she who deserved it so much…”
In Quebec, on Saturday, we will roll out the red carpet in front of the Imperial. Friday evening, the most coveted ticket in town will be for Allison’s concert… in the small venue that is Studio TD, rue Sainte-Catherine Ouest. His last concert, on the bill for the Pop Montréal festival, was held at the Rialto theater, almost twice as large! “I think we were too careful this time? I didn’t understand that I could fill a room by myself, so we didn’t look for a room that was too big…”
What does winning a Grammy change in the life of a musician, Allison? She thought about it for a moment: “Well, that’s why I’m invited to Everybody talks about it [épisode du 11 février dernier] ! she replies. I listened to the show when I was younger — I remember seeing Céline Dion on it, in 2012.
Allison Russell will measure the effect of this recognition in the coming months. His simple nomination, the first time in 2022, following the release of his first album, Outside Child, had already shone the spotlight on her career, she relates. More concretely, his first Canadian headlining tour, which began two weeks ago, is sold out. “Winning a Grammy makes more people interested in what I do, so it allows me to play more concerts, which sell better tickets. And that, for an artist, changes everything, in this era of streaming. For many musicians, concerts make up the largest portion of income. »
“That said, artists don’t do what they do to get accolades,” Allison is quick to say. But when they happen, we feel encouraged. When I heard the presenter say my name… joy! And when it comes to the Grammys, the accolade is given to us by our peers. This feeling of being supported by your community of musicians is what gives value to the prize. »
A price that she shares with her collaborators, as she declared on the stage. “We rewarded a song, but also a performance. This award is also that of my Rainbow Coalition. I’m so proud of all these artists around me”, as she surrounded the immense Joni Mitchell that evening for her performance, on the big Grammy stage, of the song Both Sides Now (1969).
All this is already motivating Allison Russell to begin work on her next album, which, she confirms, will be the last in the trilogy begun with Outside Child (2021).
“This first album is one of reconciliation with my past; The Returner (2023), that of the present moment to live with joy, despite the traumas experienced, the album where I find happiness. The next album will be about the future, but about this idea that it is the past and the present that shape the future, as if time was not a straight line, but a loop. »
On this next album, “I want to trace my roots”. “I want to compose the songs in Grenada and Scotland”, his parents’ origins, “and go to West Africa”. “I want to collaborate with musicians from the African diaspora, with mixed people like me. » This return to African sources was already outlined in the contours of his song Eve Was Black. “Humanity was born on the African continent, it is a scientific fact. This song raises the construction of the idea of races, and therefore of racism — an idea imagined to be able to exploit people. Still too many people are ignorant of our human history from an anthropological point of view. We all have the same ancestor, so the idea of dividing people by skin color makes no sense. »
What the Republican representatives of the state of Tennessee, where Russell and his family reside, do not hesitate to do: at the end of February, a sinister elected official blocked a resolution presented before the House of Representatives to pay tribute to Allison Russell – at the same time time as the rock group Paramore, but in a sign of solidarity with the ex-Montrealer, its singer, Hayley Williams, refused the honor.
“These elected officials do not represent the population of Tennessee,” simply states Allison, who encourages residents of her state to exercise their right to vote. “But there is a vast disparity between population and elected representation: for decades, Tennessee Republicans have used every means possible to suppress the right to vote. They claim to have a supermajority in the House, but it is, in truth, a superminority: only 32% of the population was able to vote in the last elections, which ranks the state in 49th place.e place on the list of participation in the polls. It has to change. »