Bonsound congratulates Elisapie, who took home the award for Contemporary Indigenous Artist or Group of the Year at the opening ceremony of the JUNO Awards, held in Halifax on March 23rd. This distinction follows the release of her album Inuktitut in the fall of 2023. This is Elisapie's second JUNO Award, but first as a solo artist.
Watch Elisapie’s acceptance speech.
On Sunday night, the Inuk artist delivered a stunning performance of the song Uummati Attanarsimat (Heart of Glass) at the 53rd Annual JUNO Awards Broadcast live on CBC. The performance is also available here.
Inuktitut is available on vinyl, CD and all music services.
It’s a huge honour to take home this award, says Elisapie. It is a dream come true seeing so many of us, from indigenous communities, and seeing the JUNO Awards celebrate all people, all languages. We’re all creators meant to be free.
Elisapie continues her tour in Canada and Europe this year. See the list below or visit elisapie.com for all the details.
On September 15th, Elisapie unveiled Inuktitut, her fourth solo album. In addition to spending four weeks in the Top 10 album sales charts in Canada, and five consecutive weeks at #1 on the earshot charts, Inuktitut garnered attention from KEXP, Le Monde, Vogue, Rolling Stone, The National (CBC News), ELLE Canada, Exclaim!, CBC Music, The Globe and Mail, La Presse, Le Devoir and many others.
On Inuktitut, Elisapie reinvigorates the poetry of 10 legendary songs (by Leonard Cohen, Blondie, Pink Floyd, and Fleetwood Mac to name a few) by translating and singing them in her mother tongue. The raw sounds of the thousand-year-old Inuit language gives each track a unique and deeply personal quality. Each song, produced by her close collaborator Joe Grass, is linked to a loved one or an intimate story that shaped Elisapie’s identity. Through this act of cultural reappropriation, she tells her story and offers these songs as a gift to her community, making her language and culture resonate beyond the borders of the Inuit territory.
About Elisapie
Elisapie's unconditional attachment to her territory and her language, Inuktitut, remains at the core of her creative journey. Born and raised in Salluit, a small village in Nunavik which is only accessible by plane, Elisapie is an emblematic Canadian Inuk singer-songwriter. Since winning her first Juno Award in 2005 with her band Taima, Elisapie’s body of work has been praised many times. Her 2018 album The Ballad of the Runaway Girl was shortlisted for the Polaris Music Prize, and earned her numerous Félix Awards as well as a Juno nomination. Since then, the Inuk artist performed with the Orchestre Métropolitain de Montréal at the invitation of Yannick Nézet-Séguin, at the SummerStage Festival in New York City’s Central Park, and at the NPR offices for her own Tiny Desk Session, as well as at several local and international venues and festivals. Always surrounded by the best musicians from the Montreal indie and folk scenes, Elisapie makes her culture resonate with finesse by mixing modernity and tradition.
Tour dates
27/03/2024 - Ottawa, ON - Studio Azrieli - Centre National des Arts SOLD OUT
28/03/2024 - Toronto, ON - TD Music Hall SOLD OUT
02/04/2024 - Paris, FR - Café de la danse
03/04/2024 - Grenoble, FR - Centre culturel L'Ilyade
04/04/2024 - Annecy, FR - Le Brise Glace
05/04/2024 - Vendôme, FR - Figures Libres
06/04/2024 - Guyancourt, FR - La Batterie SOLD OUT
09/04/2024 - Brussels, BE - Le Botanique
11/04/2024 - Tulle, FR - Des lendemains Qui Chantent
12/04/2024 - Figeac, FR - L'Astrolabe
13/04/2024 - Cenon, FR - Le Rocher de Palmer
14/04/2024 - Cognac, FR - Les Abattoirs
02/05/2024 - Lachine, QC - L'Entrepôt SOLD OUT
08/05/2024 - Rouyn-Noranda, QC - Petit Théâtre du Vieux Noranda SOLD OUT
09/05/2024 - Val-d'Or, QC - Théâtre Télébec
10/05/2024 - La Sarre, QC - Salle Desjardins
11/05/2024 - Ville-Marie, QC - Théâtre du Rift
15/06/2024 - Tadoussac, QC - Festival de la chanson de Tadoussac
25/06/2024 - Ottawa, ON - Ottawa Jazz Festival
30/06/2024 - Montreal, QC - Théâtre Maisonneuve de la Place des Arts (Festival International de Jazz de Montréal)
08/07/2024 - Quebec, QC - Festival d'été de Québec
12/07/2024 - Winnipeg, MB - Winnipeg Folk Festival
31/07/2024 - Sept-Rivières, QC - Festival Innu Nikamu
14/11/2024 - Terrebonne, QC - Théâtre du Vieux-Terrebonne
15/11/2024 - Saint Damien, QC - Maison de la culture de Bellechasse
16/11/2024 - Saint-Casimir, QC - Les Grands Bois
21/11/2024 - Sainte-Thérèse, QC - Théâtre Lionel-Groulx
22/11/2024 - Sainte-Agathe-des-Monts, QC - Théâtre Le Patriote
23/11/2024 - LaSalle, QC - Théâtre Desjardins
29/11/2024 - Saint-Hyacinthe, QC - Cabaret André-H.-Gagnon du Centre des arts Juliette-Lassonde
30/11/2024 - Trois-Rivières, QC - Salle Anaïs-Allard-Rousseau
09/12/2024 - Quebec, QC - Grand Théâtre de Québec (Uvattini)