The Boulay sisters are celebrating their 10-year career this week. To mark the occasion, they put together a music video from archive images from the last ten years with their song as the score. let go of life. The newspaper asked them 10 questions on this occasion.
Photo courtesy of William Arcand
Girls, tell me a memory of your victory at the Francoouvertes in 2012.
Melanie: “We stayed first throughout the competition, but it was a surprise every time. We just didn’t want to be the last (laughs). »
Stephanie: “Throughout the competition we were just both with our mic and we were told: don’t do that, that’s daredevil, people will talk while you sing!” But we had confidence, we had a forehead all around our head and it worked. »
Photo archive, Michel Pinault
At the Francoouvertes in 2012
Tell me about a pivotal moment in your career?
Stephanie: “The moment we decided to become a duo. People told us to sing together, but at first we wanted to sing separately. Then one day, in the car, in the middle of a snowstorm, we had a very strong intuition that we had to do it. That was 12 years ago, just before the Francoouvertes. »
What was your first significant song?
Both : “Lola, because it’s the first song we wrote together in the kitchen of our apartment. From that moment on, the Boulay sisters’ sound was defined. »
One of your most memorable shows?
Stephanie: “Les Francofolies de Montréal on the main stage with our guests, June 19, 2015. We were nervous and our guests really impressed us. There was Daniel Lavoie, Fred Fortin and Paul Daraîche. We couldn’t believe all these people were standing in front of us to listen to us play. »
Photo archive, agency QMI
The Boulay sisters on the Bell stage at FrancoFolies in 2015
One of the biggest surprises of your career?
Melanie: “The moment we sang on stage with Richard Desjardins because he’s always been our number one idol. It was surreal. It was during a show at FME in 2017, because we were participating in an album of Desjardins song covers. We sang that I slept with him in my tank. »
Photo archive, agency QMI
The duo during the Desjardins show, on l’aime-tu.
Which collaboration with an artist was particularly striking?
Stephanie: “During a Martha Wainwright show in Halifax, she asked us to sing Ariane Moffatt’s song My Body with her without us being prepared. We got used to his energy being hipper than ours and it was magic! »
Photo archive, Pierre-Paul Poulin
Martha Wainwright
The number of albums released and sold in 10 years?
Both : “We sold over 100,000 albums in 2017 so it looks like around 120,000 copies. We have released four albums (The Weight of Confetti in 2012, The Death of Stars in 2019, 4488 of Love in 2015 and Escape the Night in 2022) and one mini album (Aftermath in 2016). »
Mélanie, what has changed in your duo as a result of being a mother?
Melanie: “My time, inevitably (laughs). We have the great luxury of having more choice in what we do at this point in our careers, which gives me time at home with my kids who are little at the moment. I have to split my head in two. There is the mental strain of my life as a mother and my career. »
Describe your musical development in 10 years?
Stephanie: “We started with more Blue Flower and became women. We are less open, but more accepted. The sound has been refined and so has the writing of the lyrics; before it was more groche and more “Quebecois”, now it’s more lyrical. »
What are you doing to mark your decade-long career?
Both : “We asked people to write to us to remind us of memories related to our music. People tell us about periods of life, births, lovesickness, times when our music was important to them. It’s fun to be reminded that the first album meant something to us and to people. »
Offer from the Boulay sisters escape the night, a show and tour that revisits a decade-long career. They will be shown at the Grand Théâtre de Québec on October 13th and the MTelus in Montreal on November 9th. Tickets are already on sale.