“It was magical! I had no expectations and it exceeded my expectations. Something special is going on with the audience. We filled the halls. We had so much fun on the tour. It was the first time I had traveled so far and for so long. We will definitely go there again next year. »
And he even used his stay in Norway to shoot a clip, an interpretation of the song Gravity by John Mayer. The video reached 20,000 views in just four days.
Jonathan Roy and his team recorded a version of John Mayer’s “Gravity” during their visit to Oslo. (YouTube, O’Bannon Records)
In short, he had a crush on European audiences, and it is thanks to his song Keeping Me Alive, which went gold in Canada, that he credits such an expansion of his audience. “It allowed me to travel with my music,” he says.
At home, Jonathan Roy continued his Quebec tour, which he had started in the winter. Several festivals are coming up, including the closing show of the Fête du Lac des Nations on July 23rd, but also a visit to the 16th Osheaga Festival on August 6th. The indoor tour will resume in September and return to Sherbrooke on November 3rd at the Salle Maurice-O’Bready. The current calendar provides dates until March 2024.
“It’s a show full of emotions that comes from all sorts of themes. We are in self-acceptance, freedom, love,” says the singer.
great dive
So far, Life Distortions, his most recent album (released in February), is his most popular. Partly made in California, it is above all the result of a great self-examination.
“I did a great introspection about myself and then about my life. A big acceptance. I understand myself much better. “Life Distortions” is a reminder of all the things I’ve learned over the past year, to remember who I really am and then not let society lead me back into something I’m not. »
In the coming weeks, Jonathan Roy plans to release a new song, Taking on the Rest of the World, which will not appear on Life Distortions but which he has performed live since the tour began. He is already thinking about a next album and further tours elsewhere in the world.
“We also have a lot of admirers in Brazil,” he emphasizes in passing.
Over a decade career
Incidentally, and despite his young age, it has been more than ten years since Jonathan Roy began his musical career. After retiring from ice hockey in 2008 after a high profile brawl, he released his debut album What I’ve Become in 2009. His second album “Found My Way” was released in 2010. His first French-language album “La Route” was released in 2011.
Roy then had a critically acclaimed role in the 2012 revival of the musical Don Juan.
In December 2022, the singer-songwriter delivered the first part of Earth, Wind & Fire in Hawaii, exactly where he had already supervised the first part of Lionel Richie in 2019. He took the opportunity to shoot two clips, including one with singer and backing vocalist Kim Richardson, for a cover of Chris Stapleton’s Cold.
Jonathan Roy also performs one of his biggest hits, Keeping Me Alive, with Kim Richardson. The music video for the song has racked up over 100 million YouTube views.