2025 Gala SOCAN Red Carpet Video Interviews, Part 2

Montréal’s La TOHU rocked to the beat of the 2025 Gala SOCAN, marking the organization’s 100^th anniversary, with more than 100 trophies, awarded in 25 categories, to honour the creativity and excellence of songwriters, screen composers, and music publishers from Québec and across Francophone Canada. Here’s Part 2 of a series of interviews that we conducted at this memorable event, held on May 4, 2025. (All videos are in French only, for now; English-subtitled versions will be uploaded soon.)

Fredz won the Breakthrough Award at the 34^th Gala SOCAN. His rise over the past two years has been most impressive, and he’s made a place for himself in Québec, as well as in France, during that time. He’s quickly won over audiences thanks to his distinctive musical style, where he intertwines French pop and rap. Of course, behind this success is a thorough digital strategy, but it’s his exceptional sense of melody, his radio hits, and his sold-out shows that explain his phenomenal popularity. We had a chat with him on the red carpet.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Olivier Bibeau, winner of the Screen Composer of the Year – Breakthrough Award, started out as the drummer for Final State, a popular rock band from Québec City, in the 2010s. He ultimately transitioned to screen composing after winning the SOCAN Foundation Emerging Screen Composer Award in 2016, and his evolution has been most impressive ever since. His music has been featured in several sports programs, ranging from NFL football to the Olympics, the FIFA World Cup, and the Super Bowl, as well as in films such as Emilia Perez, the Netflix reality show Love is Blind, and ads for such brands such as Disney, Pepsi, Biotherm, Audi, and even NASA! We met him on the red carpet.

 

 

 

 

 

The Gala SOCAN presented a new category this year: Songwriter of the Year – Producer. This new category was overdue, and it’s essential to recognize the work of these types of creators. Unsurprisingly, this inaugural edition of the award went to Montréal’s powerhouse production duo Banx & Ranx.  Among their most spectacular collaborations in he past two years are the song “Please Don’t Change,” by K-pop artist Jung Kook feat. DJ Snake (No. 5 on the Billboard Hot Dance/Electronic Songs chart, and over 164 million streams on Spotify); Preston Pablo’s song “Dance Alone,” certified Gold in Canada; Rêve’s song “Whitney” (nearly 5 million streams on Spotify); not to mention their victory at the 2023 JUNOs in the Breakthrough Artist of the Year category.

 

 

 

 

In 2024, Lost and Souldia – the two winners of the Hip-Hop category at this year’s Gala SOCAN—collaborated on an earth-shattering joint album that caused quite a stir! That album, Portrait robot, was a huge success, and Lost’s individual achievements are just as impressive: more than 20 million streams on Spotify for his three releases in the last two years; two ADISQ nominations, including one in the Popular Success category; and all that without any radio support. Here’s our interview with the rapper from the 5Sang14 collective.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The International Song Award went to La Zarra’s Évidemment, a song she sang and co-wrote with Zacharie “Soke” Raymond, Yannick “KNY Factory” Rastogi (aka Banx & Ranx) and Benny Adam. The hit is published by Coyote Records. The song even took her all the way to the Eurovision contest, an experience La Zarra found highly rewarding, despite having been involved in a bit of a controversy. We had a chat with her on the red carpet.