Brendan Kelly: Les Cowboys Fringants dominate ADISQ Gala
Les Cowboys Fringants won band of the year and song of the year. Jean-François Pauzé garnered the Félix as singer-songwriter of the year.
Published Nov 04, 2024 • Last updated 3 hours ago • 4 minute read
So, did you watch the ADISQ Gala Sunday night?
If you’re anglophone, chances are you didn’t spend your evening watching the annual Quebec music-awards ceremony. Don’t worry. I’m not going to get angry with you. I don’t think we should impose rules on what people do in the comfort of their own homes. But it kind of makes me sad if you didn’t.
I’m not saying that everything produced in the Québécois music scene is incredibly exciting. It isn’t. Without naming names, there’s crap chez nous just like there is in every other pop milieu around the world.
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But there’s also loads of great music made here in the language of Charlebois and much of it was celebrated at the ADISQ Gala Sunday, from the smart, impossible-to-categorize singer-songwriter Daniel Bélanger, who won male artist of the year, to the fine alternative band Karkwa, who participated in the opening number and had already won three Prix Félix at pre-Gala ceremonies.
I was mulling over the cultural divide almost exactly a year ago after Karl Tremblay, lead singer of Les Cowboys Fringants, died of prostate cancer at age 47. His death shook francophone Quebec. It’s no exaggeration to say it was akin to what people felt when John Lennon died all those years ago. His funeral was held at the Bell Centre, which was packed to the rafters for the event.
Meanwhile, many anglo Quebecers were surprised by the depth of the reaction. Most had heard of the popular folk-flavoured rock band but I think the majority of anglos had no idea just how much Tremblay and the band meant to francophones here.
Sunday’s awards ceremony was a reminder of the impact of Les Cowboys in Quebec. A little less than two weeks before the first anniversary of Tremblay’s death, Les Cowboys Fringants dominated the ADISQ Gala, winning band of the year, song of the year (for La Fin du Show from their Pub Royal album) and Jean-François Pauzé garnered the Félix trophy as singer-songwriter of the year. Tremblay was the frontman and the face of the group, but the vast majority of the songs over their 27-year career were penned by Pauzé.
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Marie-Annick Lépine, Tremblay’s widow and a multi-instrumentalist in the band, gave an emotional acceptance speech after they won as best band near the end of the gala.
“Mon gros, rest in peace,” she said. “You’ve already done a lot for Quebec.”
Backstage after winning as singer-songwriter, Pauzé paid tribute to Tremblay.
“I share this award with him because Karl was always my alter-ego,” said Pauzé. “I wouldn’t think of him when I was writing a song, but he was always able to communicate my words as if he had written them.”
Pauzé, 49, said writing is part of his DNA. He has no intention of stopping writing, but he’s not sure what it’s going to be like to write songs that will not be sung by Tremblay.
“I’m not there yet, I haven’t started writing knowing he won’t be singing the song, so we’ll just have to see, I can’t really answer that question right now,” said Pauzé.
Elisapie holds her Felix Award for Indigenous Artist of the Year at the ADISQ gala Nov. 3, 2024. Photo by Peter McCabe /The Canadian PressAlexandra Stréliski was another of the big winners Sunday. The modern-classical pianist won the Félix for bestselling album for the record Néo-Romance as well as the female artist of the year trophy. The wins are particularly impressive given that she makes instrumental albums, hardly the most commercial of genres. When she accepted the trophy for bestselling album, she said she was sure Les Cowboys Fringants were going to win in the category.
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“I think you saw, I was very surprised,” said Stréliski, backstage. “I had no idea my record sold the most this year. I think I sit in a very funny realm between pop and classical. What I do know is what I hear from the messages people send me. They listen a lot to my music in their everyday lives. They go through very human stuff — births, deaths — and I think it resonates very deeply with people. That’s what they tell me. And it becomes their own. And I think that is very powerful. I’m not telling you what you feel. I’m just letting you feel what you are going to feel.”
The soirée opened with a very cool performance featuring three artists and three languages: Elisapie singing in Inuktitut, Montreal indie band Half Moon Run singing in English and Karkwa singing en français.
Elisapie won as Indigenous artist of the year and her masterpiece of an album Inuktitut — featuring covers of songs she loved growing up sung in her language — won the Félix as best album of reinterpretations at a previous gala.
“People are really more open and sensitive to bringing Indigenous artists to their homes and to their hearts,” Elisapie said backstage. “I feel it. It was definitely fun to have a trilingual opening. I thought that’s the way we should always do it. We’re all loving each other and that’s all we need to be showing.”
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