The house lights go down and something strange happens. The MC isn’t speaking in English, but in French. That’s because tonight is a showcase of francophone musicians, headlined by Franco-Albertan country musician Mireille Moquin.
Playing piano from the age of five and writing music since she was in high school, music has always been a big part of Moquin’s life.
Hailing from Edmonton, she got her start in the French quartet Allez Ouest who played the Smithsonian Folklife Festival in Washington, D.C..
“Edmonton has a vibrant music scene, full of artists hungry for gigs,” she said, adding that the French scene just isn’t there yet in terms of prominence.
“Francophone audiences want the sure thing,” she said, which is why her fellow new French artists struggle.
“With my baby and my new album there’s been a lot of birth this past year,” she told the audience Jan. 24 at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa.
She believes the promotion she has done for the album is starting to pay off.
“Well, anglophones are getting into it. We shouldn’t let language stump us from reaching out to the anglophone audience.”
But life on the road isn’t easy, Moquin said.
“Most artists have to do all the work themselves, people don’t really see that side.”
Citing country legends like Patsy Cline and Johnny Cash as inspiration, her new album Aurevoir Princesse makes it clear that her soul lies in country.
In spite of this, she doesn’t want to be pegged as just a country artist, saying with songs like the dark “Le vide” and the more upbeat “La nuit sera courte” that it’s more about how it’s “the sound that suits the song.”
She also sings in English on the album, saying sometimes it just came out in English and other times she naturally just switched between the two, which she believes mirrors the way a lot of francophone people talk now.
Concertgoer and fellow francophone Danielle Breton and enjoyed the show, with hopes that francophony stays alive.
“It’s great to see young people continue in the footsteps of Robert Charlebois and Michel Rivard,” Breton said.
“I hope this aspect of our culture is never lost.”
