What a lamentable example that of the pop singer Jérôme Couture who throws his Quebec identity and his language to the nettles to cheerfully anglicize his name by adopting that of Jay Kutcher to make a career in the United States!
• Read also: Jérôme Couture changes its name to break into the English-speaking market
Contrary to this ti-coune who imagines himself succeeding in life with the Americans, there are however among us artists who resist.
If I look at La Voix, and not The Voice as in France, I see Marjo, our national rocker, who advocates for the cause of Quebec when necessary.
I see Mario Pelchat, with a magnificent voice, who never let go of his tongue.
I also see Corneille, who grew up in a country, Rwanda, yet tempted by anglicization, who defends the beauty of French song.
Stromae’s tongue
Alongside protest groups like Loco Locass, there are some for whom the French language is the natural artistic vehicle, and that’s good.
The late Karim Ouellet had us ventured into a pop musical universe tinged with soul in the language of Vigneault and Stromae.
As for his sister, Sarahmée, her rap is made in Quebec.
The fashionable music of the hour, pop, rap, hip-hop, and even the country that Jérôme/Jay Couture/Kutcher wants to sing, can always be sung in French.
Where does this impulse to switch to English come from?
Lowering
I prefer a unilingual English CEO of Air Canada who doesn’t care about us, like Michael Rousseau, than a pop singer who announces his “American metamorphosis”. The first insults us. The second makes us smaller.
When I think of our well-known great Quebecers, like Gregory Charles, Boucar Diouf, Kim Thuy or Dany Laferrière, I’m always ashamed of the idea that little kids in the street who don’t recognize them will often have the reflex to talk to them … in English !