Elisapie brings Nunavik to Montreal International Jazz Festival

Elisapie brought intensity, sorrow and excitement to the stage Saturday at the Montreal International Jazz Festival.

For one song, she walked off stage and into the crowd to stand on a small stage during her performance.

There, she performed a song for her cousin, who she said would always dance. So did Elisapie, standing in the middle of Jeanne-Mance Street in Montreal, which was filled with a crowd to see her performance.

In the final act, the group united in front of the stage to perform a song a cappella.

Elisapie said she was told by a former manager of Leonard Cohen, the cool, late iconic singer from Montreal, that Cohen had always wanted to tour the Arctic. So she covered one of his songs in Inuktitut, alongside Montreal singer-songwriter Patrick Watson.

On a giant screen behind her, Elisapie showed footage of life in Nunavik to the crowd that filled Montreal’s Place des Spectacles.

She also brought Quaqtaq artist Beatrice Deer on stage for several songs, providing a background voice but also joining as a partner for throat singing.

Elisapie wore a unique jacket made for her by artist Caroline Monnet for her tour, titled Uvattini, which started last fall.

Saturday’s show saw an amalgamation of her newest album, Inuktitut, released in 2023, and her previous album, Ballad of the Runaway Girl, which she put out in 2018.

The Montreal festival opened June 26 and runs until July 5.