Following the unveiling of the Polaris Music Prize Long List earlier this week, which includes Elisapie’s latest album Inuktitut, Canada Post has recognized the JUNO-winning artist’s cultural contribution with a stamp that features the Inuk singer-songwriter. This stamp is one of three stamps honouring Indigenous leaders who have dedicated their lives to preserving their culture and improving the quality of life of Indigenous Peoples in Canada and will be available on June 21st for National Indigenous People’s Day.
The singer-songwriter also announces new dates for Uvattini (meaning “home” in Inuktitut), for which all previous performances have been sold out. Directed by Émilie Monnet, the show combines music, storytelling, video and performance, and will be presented at MTELUS in Montreal on December 11th, as well as in Vancouver, Quebec City, Brossard and Sherbrooke.
Purchase tickets to see Elisapie live.
Meanwhile, the Inuktitut tour continues this summer with numerous festival appearances, both in Quebec (FEQ, Montreal International Jazz Festival, La Noce, etc.) and the rest of Canada (Ottawa Jazz Festival, Winnipeg Folk Festival, Edmonton Folk Festival, etc.). This fall, Elisapie will also perform at Joe's Pub in New York City on October 5th, and at the Opera House in Toronto on November 8th. See the list below or visit elisapie.com for all tour dates.
On September 15th, 2023, Elisapie unveiled Inuktitut, her fourth solo album. In addition to spending four weeks in the Top 10 album sales chart in Canada, and five consecutive weeks at #1 on the earshot! chart, the album 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. In March, Inuktitut also earned the Inuk singer the JUNO for Contemporary Indigenous Artist or Group of the Year.
Inuktitut is available on LP, CD and digital formats.
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
15/06/2024 Tadoussac, QC - Festival de la chanson de Tadoussac SOLD OUT
22/06/2024 Carleton-sur-Mer, QC - Carleton-sur-Mer (Festival BleuBleu)
25/06/2024 Ottawa, ON - Ottawa Jazz Festival
30/06/2024 Montréal, QC - Théâtre Maisonneuve de la Place des Arts (Montréal International Jazz Festival) (Uvattini) SOLD OUT
05/07/2024 Chicoutimi, QC - La Noce Saguenay
08/07/2024 Québec City, QC - Festival d'été de Québec
10/07/2024 Iqaluit, NU - Aqsarniit Hotel & Conference Centre - 30th Anniversary of the Nunavut Land Claims Agreement Act
12/07/2024 Winnipeg, MB - Winnipeg Folk Festival
31/07/2024 Sept-Rivières, QC - Festival Innu Nikamu
04/08/2024 Canmore, AB - Canmore Folk Festival
09/08/2024 Edmonton, AB - Edmonton Folk Festival
16/08/2024 Lavaltrie, QC - Église Saint-Antoine-de-Lavaltrie
14/09/2024 Abiquiu, NM - Ghost Ranch Music Festival
28/09/2024 Vancouver, BC - Chan Centre for the Performing Arts (Uvattini)
05/10/2024 New York, NY - Joe’s Pub
08/11/2024 Toronto, ON - The Opera House
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 SOLD OUT
23/11/2024 LaSalle, QC - Théâtre Desjardins
29/11/2024 Saint-Hyacinthe, QC - Cabaret André-H.-Gagnon du Centre des arts Juliette-Lassonde SOLD OUT
30/11/2024 Trois-Rivières, QC - Salle Anaïs-Allard-Rousseau SOLD OUT
09/12/2024 Québec City, QC - Grand Théâtre de Québec (Uvattini)
11/12/2024 Montréal, QC - MTELUS (Uvattini)
14/12/2024 Verchères, QC - L'Église du Village
04/04/2025 Brossard, QC - Théâtre Manuvie (Uvattini)
25/04/2025 Sherbrooke, QC - Théâtre Granada (Uvattini)