Photo by Frédérique Ménard-Aubin. Left to right/De gauche à droite : Rau Ze, Émile Bourgault, Hôte

Francouvertes : Rau Ze, Émile Bourgault, Hôte are 2022 finalists

Story by Eric Parazelli | Wednesday April 27th, 2022

After three weeks of hotly contested semi-finals, the three finalists of the 2022 edition of the Francouvertes have been chosen: Rau Ze, Émile Bourgault, and Hôte. The result was decided by a jury of music industry professionals and members of the public, both in person, and online via a broadcasting platform specially designed for the occasion.

Francouvertes, 2022, David Lagacé, Rau Ze

David Lagacé, Rau Ze

During the last evening of the competition semi-finals, several prizes were awarded, including SOCAN’s Paroles & Musique Award to the group Rau Ze for the quality of its lyrics and music. Members of the band won a $1,000 cash prize and a writing residency at the SOCAN House in Los Angeles or Nashville.

The SOCAN Foundation offered semi-finalist David Lagacé a $1,500 grant to create the theme song for the 2023 edition of the Francouvertes. To learn more about the other prizes awarded during the semi-finals, and all the prizes that will be distributed at the end of the grand finale, visit the Francouvertes website.

The “J’aime mes ex” series also concluded with Alex Burger, finalist of the 23rd edition of Francouvertes, who opened the last night of the semi-finals at Montréal’s Lion d’Or club. SOCAN is proud to have made this series possible, allowing audiences to re-connect with the musical universe of past participants throughout the preliminary and semi-final rounds: Thierry Larose, Fanny Bloom, Valence, Émilie Proulx, FUUDGE (in duo mode), Chloé Lacasse, Gab Bouchard, Mathieu Bérubé, and Alex Burger.

The grand finale of the 2022 edition will be held in front of a live audience on May 16, at 7:30 p.m., at Club Soda. Audiences at home will also be able to view and vote live via the streaming platform at thepointofsale.com.

Good luck to the finalists of this 26th edition of the Francouvertes!

Photo by Marie-Michèle Bouchard

SOCAN Satellite Sessions: MIELS

Story by SOCAN | Thursday April 28th, 2022

In order to provide a platform for our members on the rise, we’re pleased to present the SOCAN Satellite Sessions – an ongoing series of new, exclusive member performances. This one features the powerhouse duo MIELS.

Click on the image to watch the performance

Click on the image to watch the performance

After an unanticipated encounter in the Nevada desert,Paige and J-F decided to cancel their respective flights home and hit the roads winding through the American West. Paige, straight out of the swamps of Georgia, and J-F, far from the countryside of Québec, made a second spur-of-the-moment decision to move to Montréal and start a band. Paige’s love of the French language and J-F’s longtime love affair with music gave rise to MIELS (“Honeys”). Since the big move, they’ve coalesced their two worlds by way of composition, creating a sound that resembles them both. The result is sexy, electro rock ‘n’ roll, in French. It’s a sound that makes one yearn for the road, and to forget the problems of everyday life – a sound that’s pure, hot-blooded, and electrifying from the first note to the last. After the release of their first album Prends-moi comme la mort (Take Me Like Death), the duo made their mark on the Montréal and international music scenes by playing live on Radio Canada, and on the stages of major festivals, like Coup de Coeur Franco, Festival International de la Chanson Granby, Emerging Music Festival (FME), Grosse Lanterne, Seal Off, and Taverne Tour, among others. Faithful to their nomadic way, they turned their tour van into a camper in 2020 and once again hit the road – this time in Canada. The mission was to drive coast to coast and write their second album. Mission accomplished: from Gaspésie to Vancouver Island, they composed 11 songs for their new album Lécher le ciel, which will be released in May on Coyote Records.

Video: The Pros – Screen Composer Amin Bhatia

Story by Howard Druckman | Tuesday April 26th, 2022

SOCAN introduces a new video series, The Pros, where leaders in their musical fields share some of the high-level information they’ve learned while creating a significant body of work over the course of their careers.

First up is screen composer Amin Bhatia, who has:

  • composed 50-plus scores, over 30-plus years;
  • written music for film, television, radio, and theatre;
  • with co-composer Ari Posner, scored the CBC/Netflix series Anne with an E and internationally-acclaimed series Flashpoint and X Company;
  • written compositions for The Handmaid’s Tale;
  • scored the feature films Storm, Iron Eagle II, and John Woo’s Once a Thief;
  • earned multiple Canadian Screen Awards with co-composer Ari Posner, and an Emmy Award nomination for the Disney series Get Ed;
  • worked with David Foster and Steve Porcaro, and seen some of his music appear on Michael Jackson’s Thriller;
  • seen his albums The Interstellar Suite and Virtuality become standard repertoire in marching-band competitions.

Here, Bhatia explains the key difference between scoring a live-action screen production, and an animated one.

Click on the image to watch our interview with Amin Bhatia

Click on the image to watch our interview with Amin Bhatia