La Voix Junior Alumni Strut Their Stuff at Boucherville’s VeloFête

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“Give me a stage and I’ll perform” famously said legendary guitarist Eric Clapton. The same could be said of this group of performers from the most recent edition of the popular show “La Voix Jr”. You could have expected these kids to fade from the public eye once the celebrity coaches were gone, and the cheers from successful concerts at the Bell Centre and Centre Videotron faded, but that would be underestimating their resolve to make it in showbiz. Mathilde Robitaille, Emy Rayes, Leticia Jiminez, Zion-Luna Ribeaux-Valdes, Camila Ribeaux-Valdes, Andy Khun, Rafaël Dolan-Bachand and Charles Kardos instead banded together, and are playing regular gigs around the province, with their parents acting as stagehands, makeup artist or sound engineer.

The group was at Boucherville’s VéloFête this past Sunday, and played a concert that lasted about 90 minutes. Stripped of the show’s production values, the young singers had to rely on their talent to impress the crowd of a few hundred people in attendance. Many had a lot of family and friends in attendance, but this wasn’t pity applause: these kids are talented.

The singers opened the show with the official theme song of “La Voix Junior”, then in group, duo or solo, they offered their interpretation of songs that are dear to them. One standout: Mathilde Robitaille played her first composition, the lone piece of original material during the show. The fans in attendance cheered when their favourite Rafaël Dolan-Bachand played his ukulele to accompany himself on “Light the Sky”.

It’s amazing to see kids that age (the singers range from 11 to 14) with so much raw talent. Sure, it needs to be refined, but doing these shows will give them an opportunity to learn how to work a stage and offer a performance. You can learn to be a performer, but you’re born an artist. They’ve got the latter part down already.

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