Nunavik artist takes stage on Quebec New Year’s special

Nunavik artist Niivi Sinuupa featured alongside 10 Indigenous artists from every nation in the province on one of the biggest stages in Quebec television — the En Direct de l’Univers (Live From the Universe) New Year’s Eve special.

The Radio-Canada music show attracts millions of viewers for its year-end edition, Sinuupa said she was told by a producer.

Getting the gig was a total surprise.

“Juurini was in the original lineup,” she said of her fellow Kuujjuaq musician, in a phone interview.

Joey Partridge, who goes by the stage name Juurini, is part of Kwe!, a musical group made up of musicians from all 11 of Quebec’s Indigenous groups.

He helped reimagine the 1974 song Un musicien parmi tant d’autre (One Musician Among Many Others) by the Quebec folk group Harmonium with singer-songwriter Serge Fiori, who was part of the band. It includes the adapted lyric from the original song, “Where have all the people gone who had something to say,” which each musician sings in their own language.

Kwe! performed the song on June 21, as part of National Indigenous Peoples Day celebrations. There, the Inuit traditional drummer group of Sandy Emudluk and Janice Parsons performed alongside them.

The group was also scheduled to perform the song again on June 24 for Quebec’s St-Jean-Baptiste Day, but the weather prevented them from doing so, and Fiori died that very day.

The New Year’s performance was done in honour of Fiori, who was Quebecois with Italian ancestry, and sought to bring Quebec’s Indigenous nations together.

Juurini was not available on the day scheduled to tape the performance, which was two weeks before New Year’s Eve. He texted Sinuupa to fill in for him, but offered little detail on what the job was.

“When I showed up, I was like, ‘Wait a second, I know where I am,'” she said.

It is a tradition of Sinuupa and her grandmother to watch En Direct de l’Univers on New Year’s Eve alongside Radio-Canada’s programming for that evening, including Infoman and the Bye-Bye sketch comedy show.

“I knew she would be watching, and I was very excited to surprise her, because I was not allowed to tell anyone that I was on the show,” Sinuupa said.

The shoot lasted two days, with the first day taken up with rehearsals. Sinuupa revised her part, since it originally catered to Juurini’s deeper voice.

The next day, the group got called over for 1 p.m., and they began the process of “full glam.” She did her own makeup, she said, because she likes to have a certain style.

They waited 13 hours before stepping on stage to perform.

“It was definitely an experience,” Sinuupa said.

“But I did get to meet a lot of really cool people, and I made some really beautiful contacts,” namely Quebec’s Indigenous artists. “It was really worth it.”

In 2026, Sinuupa will release her first album and tour during the summer.