Lord Byrun, Grand Prize winner of the 50th edition of the Festival international de la chanson de Granby.
On Aug. 22, 2018, at the finale of the 50th annual edition of the Festival international de la chanson de Granby, Regina-born Lord Byrun won the Grand Prize. The other three finalists were Jessy Benjamin, Laura Lefebvre and Simon Eliott. Besides offering the audience and judges outstanding performances, each finalist walked away with several prizes and awards.
Each year, SOCAN also offers an award, to one of the 24 semi-finalists whose songwriting talent stands out during the multi-week competition. This year, SOCAN presented the Paroles & Musique Award, with a $1,000 cash prize – previously known as the Prix Coup de coeur SOCAN – to Laura Lefebvre. The 20-year-old’s song “Émile” captured the jury’s attention and won her the honour.
Besides awarding this prize, SOCAN is very active throughout FICG. This year, in collaboration with Amélie Larocque (AMÉ), SOCAN facilitated a professionalization workshop for all the competitors. The workshop touched on subjects such as copyrights, the music industry, and AMÉ’s songwriting process, in keeping with one of SOCAN’s priorities to to offer as many tools as possible to foster the success of songwriters.
Congratulations to Laura for her Paroles & Musiques Awardl, and to Grand Prize winner Lord Byrun, as well as all the contestants of this 50th edition of FICG. For more information, visit ficg.qc.ca.