Louis-José Houde is my new hero. Did you hear, at the ADISQ gala, his magnificent plea for “Québec French”? It touched me deeply.
The problem is that I’m not sure that all members of the “next generation” of “emerging” music are as enamored with the language as my uncle Louis-José.
BRAVO LOUIS-JOSÉ HOUDE!
When he concluded his 18 yearse and the last gala, Louis-José Houde declared that it was his “love for the French language” that convinced him to host this gala 18 years ago.
“I think Quebec French is beautiful, I find it rich, I find it the most beautiful thing we have. (…) A language can die, it has already happened elsewhere. When we have a language as a working tool, we have the opportunity to support it, to embellish it, to make it dance and to give young people the taste to embrace it above all. (…) A living language is a language that is sung. Thus that, keep singing dear friends, more than ever, keep singing.” Wow! What a beautiful message!
Except that during the gala we were able to listen to artists of the new generation, and sometimes I didn’t understand a word of what was coming out of their mouths. Remorse, nonsense.
The worst case came during the segment about the nominees in the New Year category. When the rapper Calamine came on stage, I didn’t understand ANYTHING he was singing.
I even did the test on QUB radio on Monday: I played the bit to Louis-José Houde, who was struggling to identify a single word.
So I did some research to find the lyrics to the song that Calamine performed at the gala and it’s called Lesbiana woke up in autotune.
So here’s a sample: “The queen from the block of dirt shit lost in the east end / talk to the catnip with them gurls gurls in my gang / (…) Manyqueens in my Hochelag, / weird tweets on the laptop.
“Full dose estrogen, I’m destroying the game / Bulldog is my totem, my top ten is all pink / Are you a butch or a handsome young man? Hair makes them all emotional /
“Millions of years of straight reign, I blew it all away in zero seconds / rapo like a cellophane, kingdom is like cleopatra / ratchet is a pleonasm, sweater and leopard leggings / Everywhere he shakes it red flagsI have a female bull shit unstable”.
BACKGROUNDS?
The Sainte-Foy artist who chose Calamine as his stage name has the right to rap about whatever he wants. But I wonder if he doesn’t cross the line when in this same song he says: “Ah yes, I’m not an MP, I rap, I just voted federal / In Bloc Queb’ you got pederasts? I, fuck them everything in general! / How do I know these are wineries? Stay tuned / I think I lack B12, the leader on the right is a gay uncle.”
Since we are a “woke lesbian” is verbal abuse acceptable? And are we privileged to be chosen from among the crème de la crème of the next generation during the evening of musical excellence?
