Video: 2025 Gala SOCAN Red Carpet Interviews, Part 1

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 1 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.)

 

The gala wrote a page in history, with the Cultural Impact Award – presented to a song that has had a profound impact on our society – going to a hip-hop/rap song for the first time. Driven by the passionate commitment and voices of Imposs, J-Kyll, and Dramatik, of the legendary group Muzion, “La Vi Ti-Neg” embodies resilience, identity, and innovation. A bona fide poetic anthem that’s both a celebration and a meditation, this track reshaped Franco rap, inspiring a new wave of artists to blend the personal with the political. We caught up with them immediately after a moving homage to their influence.

 

 

 

 

 

 

There could be no better recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award at this 34^th edition of the Gala SOCAN, marking the organization’s 100^th anniversary: Diane Juster has had an exceptional career as a singer-songwriter. However, it’s her advocacy for the rights of music creators that led to the foundation of SPACQ, SODRAC, and Fondation SPACQ and made her into one of the great architects of Québec’s musical ecosystem as we now know it. We met with her on the red carpet just before she received her honour from the hands of the great Yvon Deschamps and another pioneer and friend, Rosaire Archambault.

 

 

 

 

 

 

During the 2025 Gala SOCAN, Richard Séguin was inducted into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame by Patrice Michaud – before Simon Godin (his guitarist and longtime musical partner), Luce Dufault, Vincent Vallières, Ivan Boivin-Flamand, Jeanne Côté, and Jorane re-visited some of his most memorable songs. Both an artist and an activist, Séguin has left a deep and lasting mark on Québec’s society. Walking the line between tenderness and rage, he ranks among Québec’s most important singer-songwriters, with a discography that spans 13 solo albums and seven collaborations. He’s a passionate advocate for social and political causes that reflect his value of human dignity and the quest for justice.

 

 

 

 

In 2024, Les Cowboys Fringants released a seven-minutes-plus song, the last one Karl Tremblay was able to record before passing away from cancer. Despite its length and unusual structure, which includes several changes in tone and rhythm that defy commercial rules, radio stations played it on high rotation, and “La fin du show” sent shivers down the spine of the entire province’s population. The song won a Popular Music Award, and we met with the band’s Jean-François Pauzé to chat about the highly emotional circumstances of recording it.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Some songs change everything. Just ask Aliocha Schneider, whose “Ensemble,” co-written with Marc-André Gilbert, turned out to be the key to his success, and not just at home, but in France as well. There, his song about a long-distance love story was used in an ad campaign for SNCF (Société nationale des chemins de fer français, the national railroad corporation), which made radio jump on the proverbial bandwagon. Here’s our interview with a smiling Aliocha on the red carpet.