Montréal’s La TOHU rocked to the beat of the 2025 Gala SOCAN, marking the organization’s 100th 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.)
Select the image to access the SOCAN YouTube interview video with FouKi
Rapper FouKi may be too young to have lived through the 1980s, but that hasn’t stopped him from releasing “80s,” a song paying tribute to those day-glo years, which he co-wrote with Adel “Poolboy” Kazi-Aoual, Clément “Pops” Langlois-Légaré, and Marc “Ruffsound” Vincent. The result was so effective that it won a Popular Song Award at the 2025 Gala SOCAN. FouKi was all smiles on the red carpet when we interviewed him.
Select the image to access the SOCAN YouTube interview video with Priori
When we think of underground electronic music, we immediately imagine solitary musicians who rarely leave their studios. That’s far from the case with Priori, winner of the Electronic Music Award at the 2025 Gala SOCAN. On the contrary, in 2023 and 2024, he travelled the world, giving more than 75 performances – from Brussels to Paris, via Helsinki, London, Los Angeles, Buenos Aires, New York, Berlin, Shanghai, Sydney, and Taipei. But he hasn’t forgotten Montréal, where he’s deeply involved in the community, helping other local artists, while collaborating with international ones who come to Montréal to work with him. He explains the strength of Montréal’s electronic music scene.
Select the image to access the SOCAN YouTube interview video with Billie du Page
With her very first single, young singer-songwriter Billie du Page won a Popular Song Award. The song “Fake Friends” spent 16 weeks at No. 1 on the Francophone charts, and racked up more than a million streams. Talk about a smash debut! Du Page spoke to us about her relationship with unexpected success, and how she co-wrote this catchy tune with Lucas Liberatore and Brittany Kwasnik.
Select the image to access the SOCAN YouTube interview video with Mike Demero
Mike Demero was honoured twice at the 2025 SOCAN Gala. First with a Francophone Popular Song Award for the song “Night in Paris VF,” which he co-wrote with Alexe, and which is published by Artifice and Bloc Notes Music Publishing; and second, with an Anglophone Popular Song Award for “Take Me Away (My Love),” co-written with Louis Blouin, Zacharie “Soke” Raymond, Lucas Liberatore, and Zagata, and published by Artifice and Coyote Records. In this interview, he talks about the how these two hits were created, and his enriching experience at a SOCAN Kenekt song camp.
Select the image to access the SOCAN YouTube interview video with Alexe
We hear Alexe’s voice on “Night in Paris VF,” which won a Francophone Popular Song Award at the 2025 Gala SOCAN. But it was her writing and translation work that was recognized, alongside co-writer Mike Demero. She began translating song lyrics as a side project to her singer-songwriter career, during the pandemic, and found herself enjoying the challenges that it brought. She explained to us how she approached translating this song, which wasn’t originally intended to be a radio single.