Highlights / Safe&Sound

Julie Remy shares her musical discoveries from Canada and elsewhere, and is always happy to get some feedback from RCI’s readers and listeners. Don’t be shy!

Arts & Entertainment

Welcome to the Queen-Dom of Dominique Fils-Aimé, where music heals the soul

This is my last Safe&Sound music column, which I started four months ago during the pandemic, and we are still not out of the woods. But the one thing I have learned during these chaotic times is how important it »

Arts & Entertainment, Society

‘Support the arts and save taxes!’, says Quebec’s classical music community

This week, some 25 Quebec singers have taken the mic for a collective live recording of the famous Blues du Businessman, a hit from the 1970s musical Starmania later sung by Celine Dion. The chorus goes: “J’aurais voulu être un »

Arts & Entertainment, Indigenous

Quebec rapper mourns Indigenous deaths, releases single called “Génocide”

Among the numerous Quebec artists that have raised their voice following the passing of Joyce Echaquan, a 37-year old Atikamekw woman who died in a public hospital after being insulted and humiliated by nurses, Algonquin rapper Samian is one to »

Arts & Entertainment, Indigenous

Urban Indigenous singer Anachnid extends her web across Canada’s soundscape

When the Montreal-based singer Anachnid picked up the Zoom-phone for our interview, she was still in shock after an emotional week that started with the death of Joyce Echaquan, an Indigenous Atikamekw woman in a Quebec hospital where she was »

Uncategorized

Canadian pop star Shawn Mendes wins five SOCAN Awards and breaks a new record

Canada’s largest rights management organization, SOCAN, serves and champions more than 150,000 Canadian music creators, music publishers, and visual artists. In practical terms, SOCAN issues licenses for the performance and reproduction of music, as well as for the reproduction of »

Uncategorized

Montreal’s Indian summer is African this year. And it lasts 34 days

One Montreal festival I try not to miss each July is the Festival International Nuits d’Afrique (FINA). The festival re-invented itself this year to survive the pandemic and will be celebrating its 34th anniversary with live shows and a lineup »

Arts & Entertainment, Indigenous

In Eastern Canada, Musique Nomade stands by Indigenous musicians

Since my first Safe&Sound column on throat singing, I meant to explore Canada’s Indigenous music scene. In Quebec, the most important stakeholder is undoubtedly Musique Nomade, a Montreal-based, non-profit organization dedicated to promoting and producing up-and-coming Indigenous musicians.  Based on »

Arts & Entertainment, International, Internet, Science & Technology

Orientalys festival brings music to the virtual stage, ‘as if you were there’

Montreal, the city of 100 festivals, was to celebrate this August the 10th anniversary of one its most recent cultural events, Orientalys Festival. Although there won’t be any food stands nor big stages erected on the Old Port this year, »

Arts & Entertainment, Immigration & Refugees, International

US and Canadian festivals team up for a month of virtual world music shows

When festivals wish to bring in international artists, their task is facilitated and the tour costs are reduced if they can book the same artists, especially if the dates and locations of the shows are close enough. This collaborative practise, »

Arts & Entertainment, Internet, Science & Technology

Safe&Sound-Montreal’s Mural Estival closes the summer with street art and music

In a city where festivals are almost as numerous as churchtowers, a summer event that cannot go unnoticed is Montreal MURAL Festival. Usually happening over a dozen days in mid-June with a flurry of visual art, installations and music acts »