Les Francouvertes : Picking the Best New French Music

Philippe Brach. Francouvertes. Photo Marcia Lafortune.
Philippe Brach. Francouvertes. Photo Marcia Lafortune.

Get your amps out and get ready for the 19th edition of Francouvertes. The annual competition has 21 participants perform and compete as a way to launch their careers. Three perform each night before an equally weighted jury of industry professionals and the public. The 19th Franouverts was launched Monday with spokespeople Fanny Bloom and Keith Kouna.

Francouverts Spokespeople Fanny Bloom and Keith Kouna. 2015. Photo Marcia Lafortune
Francouvertes Spokespeople Fanny Bloom and Keith Kouna. 2015. Photo Marcia Lafortune
Francophone music competition sponsored by SiriusXM starts February 16.

Winner of last year’s Francouvertes Philippe Brach performed at the launch.

Philippe Brach. Francouvertes. Photo Marcia Lafortune.
Philippe Brach. Francouvertes. Photo Marcia Lafortune.

Also speaking was the director of Francouvertes, Sylvie Courtemanche.

sylvie courtemanche. Francouverts. Photo Marcia Lafortune
Sylvie Courtemanche. Francouvertes. Photo Marcia Lafortune
sylvie courtemanche. Francouverts. Photo Marcia Lafortune
Sylvie Courtemanche. Francouvertse. Photo Marcia Lafortune

The weekly competitors are hoping to win the grand prize from SiriusXM of $10,000 as well as recording studios that offer studio time and time with an engineer, album distribution, guaranteed appearances in a number of Quebec festivals, a publicity campaign by CIBL 101.5 Montreal, as well as a photo session. It’s a great way to kickstart a career.

The line-up of the 21 participants is:

February 16

Yokofeu
Beat Sexü
Les Guerres d’Amour

February 23

C. Antoine Gosselin
Rosie Valland
Jean-Francois Malo

March 2

Marijosée
Oli Laroche
The Urban Indians

March 9

Samuele
Deslandes
Rymz

March 16

Mathieu Bérubé
Anatole
Eugène et le Chaval

March 23

Émile BIlodeau
Dylan Perron et Élixir de Gumbo
Chandail de Loup

March 30

Nicole
Cherry Chérie
Poni

Francouvertes runs from February 16 to May 11. The preliminaries take place at Lion D’Or (1676 Rue Ontario E) at 8 p.m. $10. The final takes place at Club Soda at 7:30 p.m. $18.

Text in this article by Rachel Levine