Photo by courtesy of/courtoisie de Sally Cole/The Guardian. Left tp right / de gauche a droite : Tara MacLean, Andrew Waite.

Tara MacLean, Andrew Waite win SOCAN songwriter honour at 2020 Music PEI Awards

Story by Howard Druckman | Tuesday February 11th, 2020

In a tie victory, Tara MacLean and Andrew Waite both won the SOCAN Songwriter of the Year honour on Feb. 6, 2020, at St. Paul’s Church in Charlottetown, in advance of the 2020 Music PEI Awards gala later that week.

Waite took home the trophy for his song “Cash It In,” while MacLean earned her recognition for “Ghosting Me.” The awards were presented during the SOCAN Songwriter of the Year Concert, which also included performances from Dennis Ellsworth, Irish Mythen, and Rick Sparkes, and was hosted by Matt Rainnie.

At the awards gala itself, held Feb. 9, 2020, at the Rodd Charlottetown Hotel, five-piece dream-pop band Sorrey was the big triple-award winner, earning Album, Pop Recording, and Video of the Year. Double-award winners included MacLean, Cory Gallant, Paper Lions, and Irish Mythen. The awards were hosted by Music PEI President and JUNO-winning singer-songwriter Catherine MacLellan.

For a complete list of winners, click here and scroll down the page.

Photo by Frédérique Ménard-Aubin/Francouvertes

Francouvertes 2020 announces 21 contestants of 24th edition

Story by Marie-Michèle Bouchard | Tuesday February 11th, 2020

Original Gros Bonnet (OGB), winners of the 2019 edition of the Francouvertes competition, kicked off the 2020 edition of the annual competition with a short-but-explosive performance at Montréal’s Lion d’Or on Feb. 10, 2020. This year’s spokespersons are Laurence Nerbonne and Émile Bilodeau, taking over from Sarahmée and Karim Ouellet.

Francouvertes announced the 21 contestants in its major Québec competition, and, SOCAN will once again support it by presenting the “J’aime mes ex” series of concerts – during which 10 Francouvertes alumni will perform as opening acts of the first round, and semi-final round, of the contest.

SOCAN will also present the Paroles & Musique Award, a $1,000 cash prize awarded to one of the semi-finalists for their songwriting talent, along with a one-week writing residency at the SOCAN House in Paris. These prizes are part of a myriad of rewards, grants, and concert opportunities that will be awarded this year.

There will be seven preliminary evenings held at the Lion d’Or, every Monday from Feb. 17 to Mar. 30, 2020.

Preliminary round

  • Mélodie Spear—Guillaume Bordel—Embo/phlébite (Feb. 17)
  • Ariane Roy—MoKa—Aramis (Feb. 24)
  • Jessy Benjamin—La Faune—Narcisse (Mar. 2)
  • Vendou—Petite Papa—dope.gng (Mar. 9)
  • Jeremy Lachance—Désarroi—La Fièvre (Mar. 16)
  • Kanen—thais—Valence (Mar. 23)
  • Mclean—Mille Piastres Please—Trop Belle (Mar. 30)

The semi-finals will be held on March 13-14-15, still at Lion d’Or, and the final round will be held at Club Soda on May 4.

The ten “exes” that will open each evening as part of the “J’aime mes ex” series presented by SOCAN are:

  • Olivier Bélisle (Feb. 17)
  • Alfa Rococo (Feb. 24)
  • Gab Paquet (March 2)
  • Marie Gold (Mar. 9)
  • Émilie Proulx (Mar. 16)
  • Jipé Dalpé (Mar. 23)
  • Louis-Jean Cormier (Mar. 30)
  • Mehdi Cayenne (Apr. 13)
  • Laurence-Anne (Apr. 14)
  • Lou-Adriane Cassidy (Apr. 15)

To find out more, visit francouvertes.com.

Richard Reed Parry plays at 2020 Sundance Film Festival

Story by Howard Druckman, with files from / avec la participation d'Olivia Cummings | Wednesday February 5th, 2020

Arcade Fire’s Richard Reed Parry played a half-hour performance to set the scene for the world première of The Nest, a Jude-Law-starring movie he scored, on Jan. 26, 2020, at the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah.

Starting at around 6:00 p.m., Parry played pieces from the film score on acoustic bass, accompanied by Stuart Bogie on clarinet and Parker Shper on piano, as an audience of 1,250 streamed in to watch the movie. After the short set, Kim Yutani, Director of Programming at Sundance, introduced the film and thanked Parry, who seemed quite pleased with the event.

Attending in the audience was Erica Grayson, SOCAN’s L.A.-based Senior A&R Executive.