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Francophone Popular Music : A Report from Les Francofolies de Montréal

[published in Contemporary French Civilization, August 2006]

Christopher M. Jones Carnegie Mellon University – BH 160 Pittsburgh, PA 15213 [email protected] 2

Francophone Popular Music: A Report from Les Francofolies de Montréal

Introduction Popular music is a multi-facetted and highly visible phenomenon, and increasingly an object of academic study. Musical and textual elements are insufficient to explain the meaning that popular music has come to embody. As Roy Shuker notes, this meaning can only be elucidated adequately by “…considering the nature of the production context, including state cultural policy, the texts and their creators, and the consumers of the music and their spatial location.” (x) The established history and practice of Les Francofolies and its Francophone context make the festival doubly attractive as an object of study, since the festival is clearly an instrument of cultural policy, as well as a concentrated display of aspects of the dissemination and promotion of popular music. 2004 marked the sixteenth year of Les Francofolies de Montréal, begun in 1988 with six acts to promote “la chanson d’expression française.” (Program 78) The founders Alain Simard, Guy Latraverse and Laurent Saulnier of l’Equipe Spectra 1 are still involved, though in 2004 a non-profit institution with a staff of nearly 1002 (not including temporary workers) spent $7.2 million dollars3 to put on over 200 shows by 158 acts over a period of ten days. As “the world’s largest festival of French-language music” (Bellerose) Les Francofolies can be subjected to multiple readings of interest to students of Francophone culture. The festival draws from several current myths, including that of Quebec as a multicultural national space, Canada as a bilingual nation, and the political/economic Francophonie as being de facto Francophone. The festival, while using the word “promotion” to describe its relationship to Francophone music, is subject to a multitude of contingencies that cause its role to fluctuate between interpreting and determining what is occurring in the Francophone musical space, especially within Quebec. Some of these contingencies include the context of Montreal and its perpetual festival environment, the influence of other Francofolies (there are many worldwide), sponsorship and support constraints, and the effect of a permanent festival organization on its ability to adapt to changes in this dynamic cultural domain. The performances were presented by categories, in concert halls, clubs and on outdoor stages that closed two blocks of St. Catharine Street in central Montreal for ten days. The author attended up to six concerts a day for the duration of the festival,4 and attempted to sample the broadest possible spectrum of musical expression. This represents less than 25% of the performers present, however, and even with prior knowledge of another significant percentage of the artists, my concert notes and conclusions about the health and variety of Francophone music as presented at Les Francofolies require the standard caveats about the personal limitations of the author.5

Foundation myths 1: A bilingual nation Les Francofolies in principle support Francophone expression in a bilingual nation—Canada. The concept of the bilingual nation was Pierre Trudeau’s, and in the years since his stewardship of Canadian national policy ended, the concept has failed to make headway. As Veltmann points out, the only true bilingual areas of Canada outside of Quebec today are the Acadian homeland in New Brunswick and the federal government in Ottawa, and—within Quebec--West Montreal, Hull/Gatineau and small 3 portions of the Eastern Townships (309). Of these areas, perhaps only Montreal and the federal government are maintaining bilingual practice; the other regions are sliding apparently inexorably toward regional monolingualism.6 As Quebec limits its “national” impetus to its own territory, Anglophone Canada becomes increasingly intolerant of the Quebec exception, and less likely to favor the institutionalizing of Trudeau’s vision throughout Canada, now considered quaint and outdated within Quebec. This is still an improvement from the Seventies, when nationalist Québécois greeted Trudeau’s notion with open hostility. Remaining artifacts of bilingualism in the festival include a small percentage of songs sung in English (the Frenchman Laurent Voulzy’s medley of Anglophone hits, for example) or even written in English (a Montreal band, Balthazar, ended their set with two songs in English). Most of these occurrences have less to do with Canadian bilingualism than they do with the market realities of rock and rap, and the Anglophone cultural origins of many of the music forms that now dominate world popular music.

Foundation myths 2: A multicultural Quebec The birth rate of Québécois of French origin (Québécois de souche, or pur laine) has been in free fall since the Quiet Revolution, in part due to the collapse of Catholic social and moral constraints and the increase in divorce and abortion. This ethnic group now constitutes a minority within Quebec borders (Seymour). Subsequent population growth has been primarily among newer immigrant communities. The language laws of the Seventies succeeded in stopping the early movement toward English among allophones (non-English and non-French speakers) and immigrants, but large groups of immigrants with alternative cultural traditions continue to take root, especially in Montreal. Currently there are attempts to characterize contemporary Quebec as a multicultural space bound by the common language of French. This characterization shifts the definition of Quebec nationalism from a cultural basis (language and Francophone culture) to a civic definition (language and values/institutions where culture is a variable), as Seymour explains. A multicultural society is primarily evident in Montreal, however, in spite of attempts by Quebec Immigration to decentralize immigrant settlement patterns away from the metropolis. The gesture of Les Francofolies in this direction is a stage called Les Spectacles multiculturels, which presents acts from ethnic communities in North America and Europe as well as from North and West African Francophone countries. The stage is supported by Hydro-Québec, which is not without irony, given the giant state-owned power utility’s often stormy relationship with the First Nations (the term used for Native Americans in Canada), during the massive re-configuring of the natural environment of Quebec’s Great North to maximize its electrical power-producing capacity. The stage was well supported by Montreal festival goers, as well as representative numbers of the local communities (Haitian, West African). The musicians interacted with the audience in French, but sang in other languages (Creole, Wolof, Arabic). An article in the Montreal Gazette just prior to the festival offered a pessimistic appraisal of multicultural tolerance in Quebec. Entitled “Quebecers least accepting of minorities, poll shows” it offered statistics that indicated Quebecers were less willing than residents of Ontario to, for example, accept marriage of a son or daughter with a Muslim or Jew, though this point of view was mitigated by speculation that these 4 attitudes were the fruit of secular and feminist suspicion of organized religion generally (Heinrich). The poll highlights the crucial difference between “living with” as opposed to “looking at” or “listening to” people of other ethnicities. The primary examples of actual integrative practice at Les Francofolies occurred less on the Spectacles multiculturels stage than in the rap and hip-hop groups that could be found on other stages and in clubs.

Foundation myths 3: La Francophonie La Francophonie is an international organization of states, territories and other entities intended in part to combat the economic and political hegemony of the Anglophone states on the world stage, as well as to preserve and promote aspects of culture issued from these spaces that have some Francophone or hybrid component. Its primary organs are a series of summits, now numbering ten after Burkina Faso in 2004, the Ministère de la Francophonie in France, and a series of international committees and initiatives in domains as diverse as telecommunications, trade and cinema. Quebec was an early and enthusiastic participant in summits, seeking to validate its national standing and priorities independent of Canada as a whole. Canada was lukewarm about Quebec’s participation, judging that a Canadian representative would be sufficient. Part of the mission statement of Les Francofolies makes mention of aims coherent with the goals of the Francophonie: “le but [est] de promouvoir la chanson d’expression française, de favoriser sa diffusion et de stimuler la circulation des artistes de toute la francophonie.” (Program 78) The evidence of this year’s festival, however, indicates that “la chanson d’expression française” and “des artistes de toute la francophonie” are not an easy match. Dan Behrman, responsible for programming Le Monde multiculturel stage, described the single criterion for inclusion in the festival: “All we ask is that our artists express themselves in French on stage, as this is a French-speaking festival.”(Rodriguez July 24) The artists with credible links to Francophone countries outside of France and Quebec that the current author was able to hear sang in Arabic, Spanish, Creole, Wolof, and so on, while interacting with the audience in French. That virtually all of these artists were presented on the Spectacles multiculturels series further muddies the waters. Multiculturalism is primarily used to describe Western attempts to integrate multiple immigrant communities without requiring assimilation. Artists representing the Francophonie, on the other hand, would in theory be resident and creating in Francophone countries and would have been seamlessly integrated into major festival stages, somewhat like Henri Salvador, the Guyanais longtime resident of Paris, who gave a exquisite show with orchestra, singing in clear Parisian French. That this is not the case is perhaps the first discovery of the festival: that Francophone practice of popular song in the Francophonie is limited. “Francophone” artists resident outside of Western Francophone areas often use French for commercial or official interaction, but employ indigenous languages for popular oral expression, including informal conversation and song. Artists resident in Quebec participate under the banner of multiculturalism rather than Francophonie, though the line can be confusing to draw. Behrman’s characterization of the festival as “the musical materialization of the multicultural phenomenon in Quebec today” (Rodriguez July 24) at least mitigates what could be misleading assumptions about Francophone expression in the festival and in the Francophonie. 5

These schematic characterizations risk simplifying an interesting spectrum, however. One example is Rachid Taha, an Algerian resident in France, who qualifies as a rock star7 in the Francophone world, while singing primarily in Arabic and English. His signature song at the Francofolies was “Rock el Casbah” based on the 1982 hit for the British punk group The Clash, sung with Arabic verses and the original English chorus. For a French resident to invoke the original locus of FLN rebellion in Algiers during the Algerian War in a British pop song in English and Arabic has multiple resonances. The use of French by Taha in his songs would have a specific political connotation (the sell- out) that he seeks to avoid, while English has fewer negative historical or cultural connotations for Algerians (at least until recently). A related dynamic occurs within Quebec, where singers (especially male) often sing in regional dialect or joual to escape the pop, elite and Parisian cultural connotations of standard French. Among current songwriters, Vincent Vallières singing country rock tunes in popular québécois and Pierre LaPointe intoning rather classical parisien lyrics over music hall and cabaret-inspired musical accompaniments exemplify this contrast.

Infrastructures 1: Montreal the perpetual festival The Francofolies are held in central Montreal in a space set aside for cultural festivals for two summer months every year. The epicenter is the Place des Arts and the Complexe Desjardins (a shopping/ office/ hotel complex) which face each other across St. Catharine Street, a major east-west artery. The space commandeered expands during the Montreal Jazz Festival and the Just for Laughs comedy festival to include portions of St. Denis Street and other areas. Many streets included in this semi-permanent festival installation (comprised of stages, food and beverage and other vendors, and technical support structures) are intrinsically commercial and benefit from the nightly influx of tourists and Montrealers who descend on the area to stroll, take in free and paid shows, eat, and drink. The logistical, security and medical infrastructure varies from festival to festival (the Jazz Festival is nearly three times the size of the Francofolies) but is always massive. There are, however, Montrealers who suffer from this permanent carnival in their midst—those who live in the festival site. As I was standing on a basketball court in the Jeanne-Mance housing projects, among the trailers, vans, staging tents and equipment required for a show for the Just for Laughs festival, it was quite clear that children living in those projects might be irritated by having their playgrounds co-opted for large portions of the summer, and their parents perturbed by the thousands of people streaming nightly through their back yards. Marie-Sissi Labrèche describes her childhood in these projects and accuses Montreal directly of taking them for granted: “ s’ils [the residents of Jeanne-Mance] sont sans le sous, ces presque sans-abri, ces émigrés de l’argent, ils auront au moins la culture, ils seront cernés par les milliers de festivals : de l’humour, de la francophonie, du jazz, un ghetto joyeux qui donne l’impression d’être riche[…]” (48.). The Francofolies, being the smallest of the three major summer festivals, included no residential areas this year. Police also crack down on homeless and street people to keep the streets free of panhandlers during this all-important tourist period. This takes the form of expensive ticketing ($138 for panhandling, for example), aggravating both those fined and their activist advocates (Carniol) 6

The cultural sections of the three major papers (La Presse, The Gazette and Le Devoir) are often dedicated to the festival of the hour, with three or four journalists reporting from disparate events, attending press conferences or furnishing background. The festival season that includes the Francofolies is a major part of the effort to market Quebec and Montreal as a summer tourist destination and is extraordinarily successful in this regard. Tourisme Montréal is one of the festival partners and estimates that the festival draws “130,000 tourists every year who alone inject 8.6 million dollars into the city’s economy.”(Bellerose) Montrealers themselves head for the streets, cafés, open-air markets and restaurants as soon as the cold breaks in May, and the festival season in the city profits from this hunger for the open air by furnishing valid cultural reasons to be outside for residents and tourists alike.

Infrastructures 2: Francofolies Inc. The organization of Les Francofolies de Montréal benefits from a large permanent staff that works year-round to plan and promote the Francofolies. Unlike LaRochelle, Montreal does not have a single dominant personality and the founders have diversified their booking responsibilities when new genres appear with cultural roots outside their experience. Dan Behrman, booker for the multicultural stage, lives in Paris, New York and Montreal, and runs a booking and management agency called Immigrant Music, Inc. (Rodriguez July 24) Likewise, the new DJ/Rap stage was sub-contracted to a young promoter connected to that milieu in Montreal. One might suppose that a certain in-crowdism would begin to develop with a permanent festival organization, and the artists to confirm that possible critique were by definition not present at the festival. The programming, if anything, however, shows a pronounced youth movement, as evidenced by the “one-album” phenomenon, i.e. artists who have one noticeable recording and are negotiating the difficult waters toward number two. In this category would be Daniel Grenier, Yves Desrosiers, Anne Major- Matte, Gabrielle Destroismaisons, Majoly, Amélie Vieille and several of the critics’ darlings of this year’s festival, Arianne Moffatt, Pierre LaPointe, and Yann Perreau. The old guard was not heavily present in this festival, other than Jean-Pierre Ferland, who seems to be the most resilient of the 60s generation, and Daniel Lavoie—active since the 70s—who headed up a revue. Claude Dubois and Louise LaForestier were ill-served by being offered cameos in the outdoor mega-show featuring the traditional/fusion band La Bottine souriante, who appear to be positioning themselves to follow Céline Dion to Las Vegas. The Francofolies do program comeback or reunion shows every year, and this year it was Jacques Michel, who had not performed since 1987, and Offenbach, a 70s rock/fusion band. The logistics benefit from such organizational permanence, and the festival runs like a finely tuned watch most of the time, with people repeating the jobs they had last year in an assured way that inspires confidence, whether it be for staging, sound, lights, security, medical staff, vending services for food and festival merchandise, traffic, or parking. This is not an alternative festival staffed with well-meaning but inept volunteers; it is a professionally planned and executed event. Other than occasional esthetic unhappiness when an artist was ill served by a setting or sound technician, the festival ran smoothly in all weather. A significant accomplishment, but if it were not so, given the investment by public and private bodies, the complaints would be deafening. 7

Infrastructures 3: Francofolies worldwide The Francofolies is not exclusive, nor even original, to Montreal. The first festival occurred in La Rochelle in 1985, where it has continued to run every year with the exception of 2003, when the labor action by technical and support personnel that shut down the Avignon theater festival also caused the cancellation of the Francofolies of La Rochelle. In La Rochelle, the festival is still closely associated with the name of its founder, Jean-Louis Folquier. (francolies.fr). Other Francofolies sites have included Spa in Belgium, Nendaz and Geneva in Switzerland, Berlin, Buenos Aires, Santiago in Chile, and Blagoevgrad in Bulgaria. Given Jean-Louis Folquier’s boast: “Francofolies: un label international reconnu.” (francofolies.fr) one would have expected substantial cross-pollinization between the festivals. In many cases, after all, the artists showcased in the Francofolies have difficulty touring outside of the heavily-subsidized festival structure. This serves to emphasize the importance of the festivals in maintaining breadth and diversity in live Francophone popular music, which otherwise might be reduced to concerts by a few monstres who could mount tours on their own reputations alone. Conversely, programming decisions at one Francofolies site could be influenced by those at others, thus acting to reduce the potential diversity of bookings. This does not appear to be the case, however. An analysis of 2004's programming at three sites (Spa, LaRochelle, Montreal) reveals a local emphasis in each case. Primary booking responsibility for the Montreal edition resides within the Francofolies de Montréal organization and their programming staff. The preponderance of Quebec acts and Francophone acts resident in North America alone would make this conclusion inevitable. Likewise, the proportion of French and European acts at La Rochelle is the opposite of the Quebec orientation in Montreal. In fact the number of Quebec artists at LaRochelle this year was distressingly small, other than a single bill headed by Francis Cabrel and Robert Charlebois, and included only Arianne Moffatt of the recent revelations in Quebec song featured in Montreal, in spite of affirmations to the contrary.8 Spa was even less favorable to Quebec artists this year, with Garou (a mainstream singer who made his name in Paris in the musical “Notre-Dame de Paris”) and the Rwandan R&B singer Corneille now living in Quebec being the only Québécois representatives in 150 shows. The Belgians in Montreal were not much better served, of course, with only Cibelle, a Brazilian woman living in Brussels, represented. There is still a synergy among the various Francofolies sites that benefits them all and provides international exposure to popular artists in Francophone areas. Manou Gallo, for example, a talented female singer and multi-instrumentalist from the Ivory Coast, former bassist with the group Zap Mama, appeared at Spa and in Montreal, albeit with an under-rehearsed band and to a lukewarm reception in Montreal. If there is less exposure of African Francophone acts at the Francofolies in Montreal, it is partially because a smaller festival entitled Nuits d’Afrique precedes it every year.

Infrastructures 4: Patterns of sponsorship and support Direct and visible commercial subsidies were identified with the seven principal stages (called “Les 7 Mondes”) and the special events in off-site locations. Not surprisingly, there was a rough mapping between the desired product image and the “monde” supported. Thus Labatt Blue supported the slightly edgier second stage and its 8

“musique alternative, rock, métal, rap” while “le Lait” supported a young artists stage and a family tent. The main stage drew funding from Ford Focus, while Loto Québec supported “Le Monde forain” another family stage featuring superb circus and variety acts. As mentioned above, Hydro-Québec supported “Le Monde multiculturel” and the savings bank Desjardins was affiliated with “Le Monde trad”, trad signifying an expansive definition of the term “traditional”. Lastly, “Solo”, a youth-oriented cell phone initiative from Bell Canada, was the sponsor of the new stage “Le Monde hip-hop”. The public support from official Quebec and Canadian sources is extensive, the festival benefiting from economic development, tourism and cultural funding sources. Quebec sources include over one million dollars from government agencies (including $375,000 from Tourisme Québec, $435,000 from the Ministère des Affaires municipales, du Sport et du Loisir and $195,00 from SODEC—the Société de développement des entrepreises culturelles), plus additional support from the city of Montreal ($75,000 and services), and from Tourisme Montréal. Canadian contributions included national government support, as well as MusicAction, Canadian Heritage, and Canada Economic Development for Quebec. All the other official partners are French, including two royalty organizations (ADAMI and SACEM), the Consulate of France in Quebec, and the Bureau Export de la Musique Française. While this sponsorship is critical to the staging of the festival, the contributions of SODEC and MusicAction on the Canadian side and the Bureau Export de la Musique Française have a year-round—and much more specific--impact on the selection and promotion of Quebec and French music. There were nineteen French acts at the Francofolies, a significant percentage of whom could not have mounted commercially viable tours on their own. The Bureau Export (whose website is “french-music.org” and opens in English) dates only from 1993, but has as sole mandate to “increase the presence of French music abroad and to raise its market share, particularly in Europe, and also to encourage the staging of concerts by French musicians.” (Hare 51) In many ways (language quotas on radio, state intervention) the French were behind Quebec in the promotion of popular music, but they are catching up quickly , with an emphasis on “la musique actuelle,” which includes all the forms of popular expression originating in the Anglophone cultural space, as well as others that have either evolved into unique hybrids (French rap, electronica, world, for example) or have no Anglophone equivalent, like the manic gypsy swing of Les Ogres de Barback. The Quebec and Canadian promotional budgets for export are relatively small, but the subsidies for recordings with high production values help create the audiences in Quebec which turn out en masse to sing along with their favorite bands and songwriters at the Francofolies. The Francofolies still lost $300,000 in 2004, and are characterized by the organizers as being “[d’une] fragilité financière récurrente.” (Lamarche) With 75% of the concerts outdoors and free, financial equilibrium depends on receipts from on-site vendors, which suffered from the mediocre weather in 2004. The relatively robust ticket sales for indoor events, sponsorship and subsidies were not enough to balance the books, especially with 2004’s elimination of tobacco sponsorship. The economics of the Quebec music industry, as a SODEC report points out, do not justify the public investment in such events (Ménard); it is the desire to maintain cultural diversity with a Francophone and québécois dimension that dictates this course of action. 9

Concert notes The brief appreciations that follow are perhaps the most arbitrary component of this report, but they are intended to give a flavor of a few exceptional or representative moments of the festival, as experienced by one person.

Daniel Grenier showed off a muscular, but literate and often humorous country rock on Le Monde Trad stage with a tight four-piece band called Les Guerriers de la lumière that included singer/songwriter Mara Tremblay on bass. Other than TV pop, this style might be considered the main current of Québec popular music, with many others (Vincent Vallières, Dany Bednar, Amélie Vielle, Kaïn, Miranie Morissette) in the Francofolies who could be loosely categorized with him. An engaging performer, he got the audience on his side immediately with his “On va rocker ça!’. Songs: “Far ouest,” “Chu ben,” “Près du silence.” Diam’s, a young woman rapper from Cyprus, took the stage with a DJ, keyboard player, backup singer and an assistant who spent the set circling the stage with a camcorder. Her set, however, was tight and known to the audience, who frequently joined the chorus and could fill in if she paused. Her show was confident, structured and physical. If, as Philippe Renaud commented in La Presse, her raps are occasional disparaged as “commercial, donc non admissibles aux oreilles des puristes” (July 31) her lyrics range from tough social issues to a paean to her father. Her current CD is “Brut de femme.” From “Cruelle à vie”: J’suis crue, mais crue est la vie J’croque la rue et les ruelles dans mes écrits Car crue est la vie.

Yves Desrosiers showcased his prizewinning CD composed of the songs of Vladimir Vissotsky translated from the Russian by Anne-Penelope Dussault, which have been musically adapted by others, including Maxime LeForestier in France. Desrosiers accompanied himself capably on classical guitar, with a pianist and bass player reading sheet music behind him. These social realist songs about workers, sailors and soldiers and misery (Vissotsky was forbidden to record in the Soviet Union) were performed in a declamatory style. The audience was electrified, until he finished with three straight untranslated songs in Russian, and even the cosmopolitan Montrealers started to drift away. The French Ogres de Barback mixed bal musette, gypsy, Django, Vian, Birmingham ska and New Orleans street band influences played at manic speed. This family band included Fred Burguières on guitar, accordion and vocals, brother Sam on guitar, trumpet and violin, and twin sisters Alice on cello, bass and trombone, and Mathilde on piano, flute and tuba. Fred’s off-beat lyrics and leadership set the tone, but the four multi-instrumentalists played with a level of virtuosity unprecedented in my experience of popular music, all of them frequently swapping instruments between each song. Kaïn is a five-piece country-rock group from Drummondville who exemplify the deep integration of North American popular music traditions throughout Quebec. The band had a contagious enthusiasm and energy on stage that had been rewarded the 10 previous year at Granby9 with the prize for Best Stage Presence. The foundation of acoustic guitar and mandolin defines an approachable sound. From “Parle-moi de toi”: Je l’sais que Québec c’pas Amsterdam C’est plate mais c’est comme ça C’est pas moi qui fais la loi […] Moi j’suis devenu c’que j’ai voulu J’chante ma vision d’l’affaire Pour c’qu’y est d’l’argent pas d’ commentaire

The Montreal press considered the concert by the 56-year-old French rocker Alain Bashung as the high point of the festival. Marie-Christine Blais of La Presse described her state of mind 15 seconds into the concert: “Je pleurais parce que c’était beau, parce qu c’était Bashung, parce que les mots et la musique nous pénétraient tous, parce que c’était parfait.” (Blais) This is a judgment with which I, for one, respectfully disagree. “Le Dimanche à Tchernobyl” with cello, violin, bowed string bass and distorted electric guitar was unique, but Bashung’s dependence on the text and atmosphere at the expense of any real musicality (notwithstanding the excellence of his band) became tedious. Bashung sees himself specifically as “an actor performing within a décor,” (qtd. In Rodriguez July 31) so my perception of the nature of the event is not incorrect; there clearly must be a determining difference in musical background which accounts for the difference in appreciation. M (Mathieu Chédid) presented his (French) arena show in the confines of the Spectrum to delirious response. M puts on a post-modern pastiche of the history of rock- n-roll, with the theatrics of Prince, Chuck Berry’s duck walk, Hendrix’s guitar acrobatics, Johnny Hallyday’s posing, punk’s mosh pit, and Smoky Robinson’s falsetto all performed with total show-business commitment and over-the-top staging, lights and smoke machines. As his kilted bass player surfed the crowd on his back, while continuing to play wireless, even the most recalcitrant members of the audience were unable to resist. On CD this atmosphere is difficult to represent, but M is a singular presence in French popular music. From “Mon égo”: Number one j’me cramponne Comme une icône à la con Avec un look en aluminium Un minimum, un minimum

The Tété/Adam Cohen bill at Club Soda presented a study in contrasts. Tété is a Parisian of Senegalese descent who plays acoustic guitar and sings rhythmic and melodic songs, many of which the audience had memorized and sang with him, making for a warm collective experience. Cohen, son of the legendary Leonard, took the stage with his band and delivered a tight set of folk pop in French that quickly emptied the club. The quartet gave the impression of a group of well-schooled brats with absolutely no connection to the audience, nor any desire to create one. Atach Tatuq is a multi-ethnic rap group from Montreal distinguished by their use of sets, costumes, break-dancing and props on stage. The effect is reminiscent of theatre collectives of the 60s with an added DJ. The raps were satirical, even self-mocking, with 11 the black rappers coming out in overstated pimp clothes and big afros, and the female rapper coming out in a Superwoman suit to sing “Y a trop de shit”. Among the targets of satire in Quebec society were Labatt-swilling hockey-loving poor white trash, bourgeois BBQers, a mama’s boy and a pair of night watchmen. Their show at the Spectrum in the Francofolies was a landmark for the Montreal hip-hop community who often complain about their limited access to large stages and the radio (Laveaux). French rap, on the other hand, is big business, and CDs by MC Solaar and I.A.M. recorded with huge budgets in the best studios make Atach Tatuq’s “La Guerre des tuqs” sound amateurish. Nevertheless, the practice of cultural synthesis that this group exemplifies is one of the few examples in the festival of a creative symbiosis emerging from the ethnic diversity of Montreal. Atach Tatuq, by the way, is short for “Attache ta tuque!”, the tuque being the characteristic cold weather cap found everywhere in Quebec, and the expression meaning “Hold on to your hats!” in the figurative sense common in English as well.10 From “y a trop de shit”: ARGH…Pis ma proprio est du style in your face J’t’écoeurée d’ma voisine qui chiâle pa’s qu’y a trop d’bass J’t’écoerée du monde qui cherche le trouble J’t’écoerée d’travailler pour me rendre compte Qu’y a des personnes qui font l’double Qu’y a des problèmes trop deeps pour les résoudre (atmusique.com)

Henri Salvador is credited with singing the first rock-n-roll song recorded in France, “Rock and roll mops,” written by Boris Vian with music by Michel Legrand. The year was 1956. (Pires) Salvador was already in mid-career. In his latest incarnation as a crooner, a young 87-year-old Salvador visited the Francofolies for the second time with a finely tuned 14-piece band, including strings and horns and a full rhythm section. He kept the sold-out Salle Wilfried-Pelletier elegantly entertained for nearly two hours, including 30 minutes of encores. The show was a clinic in concertizing, with pacing, humor, pathos, sentiment and top-level musicianship. Salvador himself is in excellent voice and health and his two recent CDs of original songs have been best-sellers in France. Vincent Vallières is a young singer-songwriter from Sherbrooke, in the country- rock genre, who manages to expressively portray a certain relaxed youth culture (and its language) in Quebec. His stage appearance was assured, though informal, and echoed the structure of his recent CD “Chacun dans son espace”.. From “Hier au soir”: Hier au soir je savais pus quoi faire / fait que j’ai marché au dep’ pour m’acheter une bière / je vois-tu pas la belle steph’ en arrière du comptoir / j’ai dit « heille steph’ quessé tu fais icitte à soir ? » / a me dit « ben là mon gars figures-toi donc j’ai pété les plombs j’ai lâché le bac v’là deux mois à cause d’un moron / qui m’a laissée trois semaines plus tard / pour une lynda de laval / qui porte une longueuil ça fait mal » / j’ai dit « bye faut j’y aille faut j’y aille bye bye » 11

Kate and Anna McGarrigle celebrated the release of their second album in French “La Vache qui pleure” with a charmingly under-rehearsed set at the Spectrum. Kate is the absent-minded one with reading glasses, who forgets words and songs, 12 stopping abruptly after one introduction to demand “Did I do something wrong? Vous êtes tous en train de me faire des grimaces!” Sister Anna knows what she’s doing. They brought out their lyricist Philippe Tatarcheff (described as “un cultivateur”) to read two poems. And if this latest CD is not as memorable as 1980’s “Entre la jeunesse et la sagesse,” the McGarrigles are still a monument of sorts, masters of lilting melody and acoustic folk textures, and loved intensely by their audience. Tatarcheff’s lyrics retain their skewed profundity, as in “Petite annonce amoureurse”: Je ne fume que du bon tabac J’aime les souris, j’hais les rats A deux ou trois Ou quatre pattes Vilains ou bien aristocrates

Conclusions: The French singer-songwriter Albin de la Simone made this comment to the Montreal Gazette during the festival: “I don’t know anything about Quebec, but it seems everyone sings here.”(Rodriguez August 9) From the evidence of the Francofolies, popular music is alive and well in Quebec and in France, at least in terms of artistic creation. Anglophone dominance may also be lessening, especially in France with pre-rock popular forms re-emerging in modern dress.12 The Francophone nature of this music is not irrelevant, but is also not a discriminatory focus of the companies and public agencies now involved—industrially— in the production and support of popular music. A browse through the “products” supported by the Bureau Export de la Musique Française dispels any notion that the French are according exclusivity to French-language artists in their international efforts. Similar conclusions could be drawn from patterns of support from SODEC and MusicAction in Quebec. In the wider Francophonie, the sung language is often not French (like the spoken language) and issues of language purity irrelevant. The fact that the Francofolies’ only Francophone requirement is for inter-song patter to be in French is revelatory of cultural realism, and hopefully not of Francophone decline. The festival is the single most important point in the musical calendar in Quebec, with artists being made or ignored on its stages, and recordings launched in tandem with appearances. Exclusion from Francofolies stages is a serious blow to efforts to gain public recognition. Nevertheless, there is little doubt that the organizers make good faith efforts to accompany the constantly changing soundscape of popular music in Quebec, in France, and to a lesser extent, Francophone Canada and the Francophonie. As a window onto Francophone music, the Francofolies is an opportunity without parallel on this continent. The conditions of the festival’s continuing existence are reflective of the larger struggle of Québécois (who are, in the words of Louise Beaudoin “spontanément, des résistants culturels et linguistiques”) to maintain a distinct Francophone society in North America.

1 Spectra is an organization which has a huge footprint in Quebec entertainment, from festival and artist management to recording and distribution. 2 Official program of Les Francofolies de Montréal, p. 78. 13

3 Unless otherwise noted, currency is cited in Canadian dollars. One Canadian dollar was worth approximately .76 American dollars at the time of the festival, meaning the total outlay in U.S. currency was roughly $5.5 million. 4 Funding for the research was provided in part by a grant from the Quebec Studies Program of the Ministry of External Affairs of the government of Quebec, and in part by the Department of Modern Languages of Carnegie Mellon University. 5 The author is a former performing and recording musician who has been following popular music in Quebec since the mid-Seventies, and visiting at least yearly since the late Eighties.. Previous publications include "Song and Nationalism in Quebec," Contemporary French Civilization, Volume XXIV, No. 1, Spring /Summer 2000, and “Quebec Song: Strategies in the Cultural Marketplace,” Quebec Studies, Volume 31, Spring/Summer, 2001. 6 As distinct from the situation described in Hugh McLennan’s 1945 novel Two Solititudes, which described Protestant Anglophone and Catholic Francophone societies coexisting without touching within the same regions (Quebec, for example). 7 Taha claims not to be a practitioner of “rai”, the traditional Algerian popular music form, as he is often characterized by Western critics (including those in Montreal). The only identifiably North African instruments in Taha’s superb 7-piece band were percussion and the mando-luth. Taha prefers to compare himself to Sting or Peter Gabriel. 8 In program notes about Edith Butler (a successful concert artist from the Gaspé with her roots in Acadian music), the claim is made that “pour ses 20 ans [les Francofolies de la Rochelle] donne une place importante à la chanson québécoise.” (www.francofolies.fr) 9 The Festival de Granby could be considered a stepping-stone to the Francofolies. With less funding, and fewer stars, it nevertheless is often responsible for first exposures of young Quebec singers and bands. Jean Leloup is among those who were noticed first at Granby and went on to establish themselves as performers. 10 Thanks to Michel Robitaille of the Délégation générale de Québec in New York, who pointed this parallelism out to me during a presentation I gave there in the fall of 2004. 11 A rough translation: Last night I didn’t know what to do / So I went down to the 7-11 to get myself a beer / Who did I see but the beautiful Steph behind the counter / I said “Hey Steph, what are you doing here tonight?”/ She says “Well my boy I hit bottom, / I quit school two months ago because of a moron / who dropped me three weeks later / for a Lynda from Laval / who has a Longeuil cut, that hurts” 12 Valérie Leulliot, singer for the French band Autour de Lucie, mentions one part of this renaissance: “Today in France there’s a lot of people who do music inspired by the chanson tradition of the Left Bank, the piano bars, très autour des textes.” (Rodrguuez July 30) Gypsy jazz à la Django, tango, Eastern European rhythms and bal-musette can also be heard, however. 14

Works and Sources Cited Beaudoin, Louise. “Diversité culturelle: Les enjeux.” Speech to the Alliance française, Paris, January 26, 2005. Bellerose, Pierre. “Montréal welcomes the 16th edition of the world’s largest festival of French-language music: Les Francofolies.” Press release. Tourisme Montréal. July 29, 2004. Blais, Marie Christine. “L’imprudent magnifique.” La Presse, August 1, 2004. Arts et spectacles 3. Carniol, Naomi. “Festivals mean open season on street kids, activists say.” The Gazette, August 7, 2004. A7. Frey, Bruno. “The Rise and Fall of Festivals: Reflections on the Salzburg Festival” Working Paper No. 48, University of Zurich: Insititute for Empirical Research in Economics Working Paper Series. http://e-collection.ethbib.ethz.ch/cgi- bin/show.pl?type=incoll&nr=561 Labrèche, Marie-Sissi. “Mon Montréal à moi,” in Jean Fugère, ed., Montréal, la marge au cœur (Paris: Éditions Autrement, 2004) 43-66. Les Francofolies de Montréal, 2004. Official Program Les Francofolies de La Rochelle, 2004. Web site: http://www.francofolies.fr Heinrich, Jeff. “Quebecers least accepting of minorities, poll shows” Montreal Gazette, July 17 2004. Lamarche, Bernard. “Un succès presque total.” Le Devoir, August 10, 2004. B7. Laveaux, Olivier Robillard, “Féminin singulier.” http://www.voir.ca/musique/. Accessed January 28, 2004. Ménard, Marc. “L’Industrie du disque et du spectacle de variétés au Québec: 1. Portrait économique des entreprises.” SODEC (Société de développement des entreprises culturelles), May 2002. Pires, Mat. “The Popular Music Press.” In Hugh Dauncey and Steve Cannon, ed. Popular Music in France from Chanson to Techno. Aldershot, England: Ashgate, 2003. 77-96. Renaud, Philippe. “Partie de pêche.” La Presse, July 31, 2004. Arts et spectacles 14. Rodriguez, Juan. “Francofolies’ many beats.” Montreal Gazette, July 24, 2004. D1 & 3. ----. “Hardscrabble hybrid.” Montreal Gazette, July 29, 2004. D1-2. ----. “French singer demonstrates magic of show biz.” Montreal Gazette, August 9, 2004. D3. Seymour, Michel. “Les minorités nationales et l’identité civiique commune.” Panel on “Conditions et limites de la reconnaissance de la diversité nationale : la reconnaissance interne.” ACQS Conference. Chateau Frontenac, Québec. November 20, 2004. Shuker, Roy. Understanding Popular Music. London and New York: Routledge, 2001. Veltman, Calvin. “Quebec, Canada and the Unite States: Social Reality and Language Rights,” ed. Thomas Ricento, and Barbara Burnaby, Language and Politics in the United States and Canada: Myths and Realities (Malway, New Jersey: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 1998) 301-315.