After an enjoyable festival experience last year at the Francos de Montréal – one we added due to a pair of our ‘regular’ Ontario-based festivals being postponed – Team GDW knew that a repeat visit to Québec’s largest city this summer for more amazing Francophone music was essential. Missing the opening weekend of the 2025 festival – due to the Canadian F1 Grand Prix taking place in the city – we arrived in the city on a sunny Wednesday evening to catch a handful of shows over the final four consecutive days.
Extending our stay last year to enjoy a tribute to the late Jean Pierre Ferland (which featured many of our favorite Québecois artists), while it was great to hear these musicians share a few songs, it also increased our desire to try and catch many of them performing their own regular concerts. We were successful with a couple of the acts too – catching both Karkwa and Le Roy, la Rose et le Lou[p] later that summer. Scanning the extensive list of artists performing this year, we found another name who participated in the Ferland tribute concert, and very quickly prioritized indie-rocker Marie-Pierre Arthur as a must-see artist on the Wednesday night.
Performing on the Loto-Québec stage in an early-evening slot, and accompanied by her full band – Simon Pedneault (guitars/vocals), Émilie Pompa (percussion/vocals), William Côté (drums/vocals), and partner François Lafontaine (keyboards/vocals) – while Marie-Pierre (vocals/bass) would gravitate strongly towards material from her most recent 2024 “Album bleu” release, several popular older cuts were woven nicely into this very energetic one-hour set.
The performance of “Miroir” allowed those of us in attendance to witness some stunning vocals harmonies from all three of the guys on stage, while a reimagined version of “Emmène-moi” (featuring just Simon Pedneault on acoustic guitar and François Lafontaine on keys to accompany Marie-Pierre) was a highlight moment (and had me scratching my head, not recognizing the tune until reaching the familiar chorus).
An explosive rendition of “La toile” was followed immediately – barely a pause – by “Tiens-moi mon coeur,” the first of two tracks taken from Arthur’s 2020 “Des feux poir voir” album. The title track would be featured later in the set, complete with a surprise guest vocalist – dream pop artist N Nao (Naomie de Lorimier), much to the delight of the crowd who added plenty of additional vocal harmonies too. And with time for one final number, Marie-Pierre pulled out her smash radio hit (and the very song that led to us discovering her music back in 2012), “Si tu savais.”
What a fabulous way to kick off our 2025 festival season! Catching up with Marie-Pierre Arthur checked another ‘must-see’ artist from our list, but was only one of several that we planned to see perform over the next few nights. Check back soon for more of our Francos de Montréal coverage.
Set List:
- Lumière
- Paradis
- Respirer l’air
- Rien à faire
- Miroir
- L’autre hémisphère
- Emmène-moi
- La toile
- Tiens-moi mon coeur
- Comme avant
- Des feux pour voir
- Si tu savais
The British guy that crossed the ocean and crash landed in central Pennsylvania (to quote Greg Keelor, “And I wonder what am I doing here?”). As the youngest of four siblings, exposure to music from a very early age nurtured my passion and appreciation for many musical genres. Continuing to discover some amazingly diverse and talented musicians based in Canada, I gravitate to live music experiences and remain devoted to spreading the word about such a vibrant music scene.
