2012 Félix Award Winners, Part 1

The first of two-part Félix Awards galas was held tonight, Monday October 22, 2012, at the St-Denis Theatre in Montréal. The Felix Awards are given out by ADISQ, the recording industry in Québec, dating from 1979 due to the lack of representation of Francophone music at the JUNO Awards.

Fanny Bloom wins Alternative Album of the Year

There were actually two segments today. This afternoon, industry awards were given. Tonight awards were given to recording artists. Part 2 of the awards for recording artists, including Song of the Year, will take place on Sunday, the 28th. Below is a list of selected categories with the nominations, and the winner bolded in red. Congratulations to all the nominees and winners! A full list of nominees and winners can be found at the ADISQ website HERE.

MUSIC VIDEO OF THE YEAR
Golden Baby : Cœur de pirate
Camouflar : Galaxie
Synesthésie : Malajube
Je te mange : Philémon chante
Petite leçon de ténèbres : Philippe B

QUÉBEC ARTIST WITH THE MOST SUCCESS OUTSIDE THE PROVINCE
Isabelle Boulay
Cœur de pirate
Leonard Cohen
Simple Plan
Patrick Watson

INTERNATIONAL FRACOPHONE ARTIST WITH THE MOST SUCCESS IN QUÉBEC
Arthur H (France)
Tiken Jah Fakoly (Africa)
Michel Fugain (France)
Maurane (Belgium)
Stromae (Belgium)

ANGLOPHONE ALBUM OF THE YEAR (BY A QUÉBEC ARTIST)
Old Ideas : Leonard Cohen
Diamonds & Plastic : Ian Kelly
MA : Ariane Moffatt
Get Your Heart On! : Simple Plan
Adventures in your own backyard : Patrick Watson

CRITICS’ CHOICE ALBUM OF THE YEAR
Aux alentours : Marie-Pierre Arthur
Astronomie : Avec pas d’casque
L’existoire : Richard Desjardins
Lisa LeBlanc : Lisa LeBlanc
Manger du bois : Canailles
C’est un monde : Fred Pellerin

ALTERNATIVE ALBUM OF THE YEAR
Apprentie guerrière : Fanny Bloom
La Défense du Titre : Antoine Gratton
Le tour du chapeau : Les Dales Hawerchuk
Ngâbo : Ngâbo
Tropical Passion : Orange Orange

ROCK ALBUM OF THE YEAR
Au diable les remords… : Bodh’aktan
L’heure et l’endroit : Dumas
Rien à cacher : Kamakazi
Que du vent : Les Cowboys Fringants
Le véritable amour : Pépé

BEST-SELLING ALBUM OF THE YEAR
Star Académie 2012 : Various artists
Blonde : Cœur de pirate
L’avenir entre nous : Maxime Landry
C’est un monde : Fred Pellerin
L’album du peuple – Tome 8 : François Pérusse

 

Toques Off to Cohen & Tyson

They were born a year apart (almost to the day), one in Victoria and one in Montreal. They both became folk music legends. Now in their late 70s, they are doing nothing but speeding up.

Earlier this year, Leonard Cohen released a brand new studio album called Old Ideas. It did not take long before achieving platinum certification. His Canadian brother Ian Tyson who, under the duo Ian & Sylvia, launched one of the most beloved Canadian classics of all time—”Four Strong Winds”—is releasing a brand new studio album called Raven Singer on May 29. Ian has been living near High River, Alberta for the past while, diggin’ the rural life of ranchin’ cowboyism. He has released a string of critically-acclaimed country music records. The title of the new album comes from Ian’s attending a sweat lodge ceremony at the Nakoda First Nation during which he was bestowed the name Ka-ree-a-hiatha (Raven that Sings). In March, Tyson was named the 100th Calgary Stampede Parade Marshall. Ian Tyson still performs on average 40 concerts per year and with a brand new album, this year should not be an exception. More info can be found at Ian Tyson’s Official Website.

Speaking of tours, guess who has announced a major North American tour in the fall? Leonard Cohen blasts off in the southern U.S. on Halloween night finishing off in New York on December 20. Below are the Canadian dates.

November 12 / Vancouver, BC / Rogers Arena
November 16 / Calgary, AB / Scotiabank Saddledome
November 18 / Edmonton, AB / Rexall Place
November 20 / Saskatoon, SK / Credit Union Centre
November 28 / Montreal, QC / Bell Centre
December 2 / Quebec City, QC / Colisee Pepsi
December 4 / Toronto, ON / Air Canada Centre
December 7 / Ottawa, ON / Scotiabank Place
December 11 / London, ON / John Labatt Centre
December 13 / Kingston, ON / K-Rock Centre

More info on Leonard Cohen’s tour can be found HERE. 

 

Carly and the Biebs Hook Up in Los Angeles

For those of you keeping track of Carly Rae Jepsen’s catapult into the international pop arena, she did fly down to Los Angeles and meet with her new management team including Justin Bieber and Scooter Braun.  Via Twitter, she has shared, in addition to the choice photo here, her first impressions of the two gentlemen.

Justin Bieber is “passionate, talented, charming”.

Scooter Braun is “sincere, powerful, and intelligent”.

Justin Bieber also shared his first impressions of Carly:

Carly Rae Jepsen is “kind, talented, and the real deal”.

Carly’s EP, Curiosity, debuted on the Canadian Billboard Albums Chart at #6 this week.  And the title-track from the EP has entered the Hot 100 Singles Chart.

Canada’s other #1 women are in Los Angeles right now as well.  Avril Lavigne should have returned form her Black Star Tour in Asia and Nikki Yanofsky is there visiting too.  Wouldn’t it be cool if all the Canadian artists in Los Angeles got together for a party?  Maybe Avril can serve up some of her famous pea soup.

Leonard Cohen’s new album, Old Ideas, is still high on the charts, at #2 this week, behind Adele.  Carly Rae Jepsen’s “Call Me Maybe” is at #2 on the Singles Chart, behind Katy Perry’s new single ”Part of Me”.  Over the past few days, “Call Me Maybe” has off-and-on been a worldwide Twitter trend.

 

Ideas and New Releases

All’s quiet on the northern front but there are a few things coming, many of them from la belle province.

Kreesha Turner will be releasing a third single from her excellent album Tropic Electric. She is filming the music video in the party capital of Canada–Montreal. It’s a secret as to which track is being released as single #3.

Speaking of partying, one of the country’s hottest bands, the awesome duo Alfa Rococo, is also releasing a new single. “La société des loisirs” from their 2010 sophomore album, Chasser le malheur, is the one. You can listen to a sample of it at their website HERE.

Leonard Cohen fans can look forward to the Montrealer’s first studio album in 8 years. Old Ideas will be out on the 31st. You can listen to samples of its tracks HERE.

Some of the world’s coolest stuff has come out of the area over the years, including peanut butter, Bixi, Cirque du Soleil, and, of course, Bill Shatner.

 

Leonard Cohen

 

Born: 1934 in Montreal

Debut: 1967

Genre: Folk

 

Some Achievements:

 

-  Canadian Music Hall of Fame (1991)

-  U.S. Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (2008)

-  Juno Award for Male Vocalist of the Year (1993)

-  Two thousand renditions of his songs have been recorded.

 

Most Well-Known Song:

 

“Suzanne” (1967)

 

Some Other Well-Known Songs:

 

-  “Sisters of Mercy” (1967)

-  “Bird on the Wire” (1969)

-  “The Story of Isaac” (1969)

-  “Last Year’s Man” (1971)

-  “Joan of Arc” (1971)

-  “Famous Blue Raincoat” (1971)

-  “Chelsea Hotel No. 2″ (1974)

-  “Who by Fire” (1974)

-  “Coming Back to You” (1985)

-  “Hallelujah” (1985)

-  “Everybody Knows” (1988)

-  “First We Take Manhattan (1988)

-  “Tower of Song” (1988)

 

Leonard Cohen with his signature gruff, monotone voice, picturesque and unsettling lyrics, and rudimentary, melancholy music is considered the most successful singer/songwriter of the late 60s who is still making music today.

 

Cohen is as much a poet as a musician. He, himself, conceded that his strength lies in his poetry rather than his vocal offerings when he remarked after winning a Juno Award, “Only in Canada could I get ‘Male Vocalist of the Year’”. Indeed, if one surveys the scores of popular singers Canada has produced over the years one does realize to some extent that you do not have to sing anywhere near as well as Celine Dion to become a pop star in Canada. In all fairness, though, Cohen’s voice is perfectly suited to the material at hand, which is, in the words of music critic Bruce Eder, “drenched in downbeat images and a spirit of discovery as a path to unsettling revelation”.

 

Despite lavish praises by American critics and musicians and his induction into the U.S. Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2008, his albums have never sold well there (his highest chart position was #63). They have done much better in other countries: five have peaked in the Top 3 in Norway. Two have topped the charts in Poland. Four have made the Top 10 in Sweden, three in the U.K., and two in both Belgium and Ireland. In his home country of Canada, four albums have made the Top 10. Like Buffy Sainte-Marie, poppier covers of Cohen’s songs have often done better than his own darker, low-key versions.

 

Born in 1934 in the Montreal suburb of Westmount, Cohen’s father died when he was nine years old. His mother encouraged him in his pursuits as a writer, especially of poetry. At age 13, he learned the guitar initially to impress a girl and later on to play country tunes at local cafés. He started a band called the Buckskin Boys. By the time he graduated from university in 1955, his creative writing earned him an award and he published a book of poetry a year later. His second book of poetry (1961′s Spice Box of Earth), unlike his first, became an international best-seller. He continued publishing books of poetry and novels while traveling around the world including a lengthy stay in Greece. In 1966, he began writing music but as a natural extension of his poetry.

 

Initially feeling too modest to get involved in the vanity of the music business, he allowed his song “Suzanne” to be picked up by established folk singer Judy Collins who put it on her album In My Life. The song received considerable airplay. Collins encouraged Cohen to begin performing again and his professional debut performance came in the summer of 1967, care of the Newport Folk Festival. Two sold out shows in New York followed before the telecast “Ladies and Gentlemen, Mr. Leonard Cohen”. Around this time, a second cover of “Suzanne” by Noel Harrison brought the song onto the pop charts. Impressed with Cohen, legendary producer John Hammond Sr. got him a recording contract with Columbia Records and The Songs of Leonard Cohen LP was released at the end of the year.

 

The album, too dark to be a commercial success, was as big a hit as a folk album could be. University students, especially, got into it. And it spent a full year on the album charts in Britain. Robert Altman’s 1971 film, McCabe And Mrs. Miller featured almost the entire album as the soundtrack. In 1968, he released a new volume of poetry which earned him Canada’s highest literary honour—the Governor General’s Award. He humbly declined it.

 

In 1970, Cohen, along with Jimi Hendrix, The Doors, and Canada’s Joni Mitchell, appeared at the post-Woodstock gathering of rock stars in England: The Isle of Wight Festival. He performed before an audience of 600,000 people. By the time he released the album Songs of Love and Hate, Cohen had gained an international cult following.

 

He released Death of a Ladies’ Man in 1977 which suffered from disagreements over mixing between him and its producer—Phil Spector. Recent Songs came in 1979. A six-year lapse followed, after which he did an album with Seattle-born Jennifer Warnes: Various Positions (1985). Cohen had met Warnes (who incidentally sang Canadian Buffy Sainte-Marie’s Oscar-winning song) in the mid-70s and had been collaborating and performing with her since then.

 

In 1988, the more pop-oriented, electronic-tinged I’m Your Man came out and first introduced what has become one of Cohen’s best-known songs in Canada—“Everybody Knows”. The album went 4x Platinum in Norway. The Future was released in ’92, becoming his biggest success in Canada (in terms of studio albums), where it went 2x Platinum. Three tracks from the album were featured in the movie Natural Born Killers. A couple of tribute albums came out, the second of which was entitled Tower of Song and featured covers of Cohen’s songs by superstars like Billy Joel, Elton John, Sting, Peter Gabriel, and others. In the late-90s, Leonard Cohen became a Buddhist, spending time in a Zen retreat writing new material. New collaborations with Sharon Robinson led to her producing his next album, Ten New Songs (2001). It was a bestseller. Cohen released Dear Heather in 2004 and, at the age of 77, released Old Ideas in 2012 which topped the Canadian Billboard Albums Chart.

 

Rise of the Heavyweights (1965-1969)

In the late-60s Canadian music became a major force and rose as steadily as the so-called British invasion declined. This set up what became known as “The Canadian Invasion” of the early-70s in the United States. The act that spearheaded this invasion was what some consider to be the greatest Canuck rock band of all-time: The Guess Who. But it took some tricks for them to be noticed at all in the beginning.

 

Besides Canadian and American hybrid bands, who churned out some big hits, other purely Canadian outfits emerged in this period. Toronto-based Little Caesar & the Consuls scored hits, beginning with “My Girl Sloopy” which won an RPM award for best produced single. Their song “You Really Got a Hold on Me” (a cover of The Miracles’ 1962 hit) topped the charts in 1965. The following year, they cracked the Top 10 with “You Laugh Too Much”. Also big in 1966 was “The Merry Ploughboy” by the Carlton Showband. Douglas Rankin & the Secrets ate up the charts with “(Clear the Track) Here Comes Shack”. This novelty song, which charted for nearly three months in Toronto, peaking at #1, was about hockey star Eddie Shack who played for the Leafs.

 

1967 was Canada’s centennial birthday and the biggest Canadian hit came from the short-lived band The Ugly Ducklings; their “Gaslight” was the 7th biggest song of the year and the second most popular Canadian song of the late-60s. The Lords of London also had a major hit with their “Cornflakes & Ice Cream”.

 

In 1969, eight of the Top 100 songs of the year, according to Toronto’s CHUM radio, were by Canadian artists. Besides aforementioned selections, The Poppy Family scored with “Which Way You Goin’ Billy?” It won Song of the Year at the Junos and sold over two million copies worldwide. They had another big hit two years later: “Where Evil Grows”. The Poppy Family, like Ian & Sylvia, was a married duo who divorced a few years after success came. The husband, as a soloist, scored one of the biggest international hits of the 1970s; we’ll talk about Terry Jacks later.

 

In terms of solo artists, the most successful of the late-60s, perhaps, with several hits, both domestically and internationally, was Andy Kim. His first big hit was “How’d We Every Get This Way” (1968). The following year, “Baby I Love You” did even better, finishing in 20th place in the year-end charts. And let’s not forget to mention that it was Kim who co-wrote one of the biggest-selling singles of all-time: The Archies’ “Sugar, Sugar”. Claude Dubois scored an everlasting hit with “J’ai Souvenir Encore”. This gifted performer and Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame inductee has enjoyed a lengthy career. The godfather of French Canadian rock appeared in the late-60s. His name: Robert Charlebois. Following suit was rock ‘n roller Michel Pagliaro who released a string of hits at the end of the decade and crossed over to the English-speaking market in the ’70s. The only other soloist worth mentioning is Barry Allen due to the success of his song “Lovedrops” in 1966.

 

Canadians continued contributing to the world of country thanks to Stompin’ Tom Connors and showed no signs of slowing down in the flourishing folk music industry. Two of the greatest folk artists arose in the late-60s, both of whom have been inducted into the U.S. Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Their names—Joni Mitchell and Leonard Cohen.