Pierre Lapointe has wanted to make a Christmas album for two decades. It started in autumn 2020 Winter songs to mitigate the difficult months of the pandemic. The singer-songwriter is now ready to present the large-scale Christmas show inspired by this work, whose streaming exploded last year.
“I wanted to make a Nutcracker in the Pierre Lapointe style. Create a family tradition that repeats itself year after year,” explains Pierre Lapointe enthusiastically.
Mario Beauregard / QMI Agency
An event show
This magnificent holiday concert is the result of more than a year of work and intense reflection on the part of the 42-year-old creative artist, especially about Christmas and its aesthetics as a social phenomenon.
“I want it to be enshrined! I want it to become an event. I have magical memories of Christmas as a child in Lac-Saint-Jean that I will try to recreate. My father and mother have ten brothers and sisters each, so Christmas was a big family celebration for us,” says the singer-songwriter, who will tour Quebec for 18 performances in a month.
It was precisely “with the family” that Pierre Lapointe wanted to stand on his big stage with its amazing decoration (hello, the twenty inflated snowmen, giant size!), dreamed up by the illustrator Pascal Blanchet and the scenographer Geneviève Lizotte.
The singer surrounded himself with a dozen musician friends, the Molinari Quartet (in Montreal, Longueuil and Quebec) and four guest artists whose presence will rotate at the different venues: Mitsou, Nathalie Simard, Patrice Michaud and Laura Niquay. Mélissa Laveaux will take part in all concerts on the tour.
“The idea is to come back every year with new friends and the same repertoire that we proposed. It’s really going to be a candy show with a lot of material; Winter songs, covers of Christmas classics, favorite songs from guest artists and surprise duets created on stage. The evening will have no choice but to end,” assures the main actor.
Mario Beauregard / QMI Agency
Eclectic and very open
Like the music tracks found on the inclusive Pierre Lapointe’s phone, this great show is based on the meeting of several universes.
With Mélissa Laveaux he feels the power of a black, queer and committed performer. The same goes for Laura Niquay, who carries with her pride in indigenous culture. In Nathalie Simard he sees the strength of a woman who takes back the reins of her life after a long life, and in Patrice Michaud, an artist of great caliber who continues to deliver songs with finesse.
“I had cosmic encounters with Mitsou and Nathalie Simard. When Nathalie sings, it is as if each of her atoms comes to life and her charisma increases tenfold. I had never seen that before, she literally threw me to the ground,” he said.
With this in mind, Pierre Lapointe offers the first romantic duet between two men on his album Winter Songs with the piece “Six Hours of Plane Separates Us” with the Lebanese-American-British artist Mika.
His audience, he says, will also range “in all directions,” from die-hard Christmas fans to young parents who come with their children to create a tradition, from eccentric teenagers to queer admirers like Pierre Lapointe and Mitsou and Nathalie Simards often serve as symbols in the community.
“It will be really open, like the people around me. Between the songs it will be very festive and what many people who have never seen me don’t know, I am very funny on stage,” assures the artist, who likes to compare this upcoming show to a “good big Christmas dinner , which will rise, with unforeseen events and a certain freedom despite the very precise visual and aesthetic framework.
What touches the singer most when he promises to change his costume every time he performs? To be part of the memory of all the people who chose to experience Christmas with him.
“Besides, if people want to dress up…come on, dress up!”
►The show winter songs, by Pierre Lapointe will be presented throughout Quebec from November 22nd to December 22nd, specifically November 22nd in Longueuil, December 7th in Montreal, December 12th in Quebec City and December 13th in Sherbrooke.