Phew! We were really numerous to have shivers, Sunday evening at The voiceby hearing Sophie resume the bird, the song that made René Simard famous. Not for nothing did the four coaches turn around. Not for nothing did Mario Pelchat cry. It was a moment of emotion, very gently.
One thing struck me. From the height of her 17 years, this teenager understood what makes the greatness of a singer: it is not a question of technique, or prowess, it is a question of heart and emotion. Obviously, Sophie Grenier understood, in her guts, the meaning of what she was singing.
SHE WILL GO FAR
In interview in the Journalto comment on Sophie Grenier’s performance, René Simard had this very apt sentence: “This young woman arrived with a way of internalizing, without artifice and with a cool side.”
It is indeed this way of singing “from the inside” that seduced us. It is indeed this absence of artifice that charmed us. You don’t have to do too much to touch people’s hearts. You have to communicate the essence of the song, understand its meaning and serve as a bridge to the audience.
And René Simard added: “Just because you sing loudly doesn’t mean it’s deep.”
He is absolutely right.
And he’s right too when he points out that Sophie “sang the bird with depth and emphasizing the text”. That’s what good interpreters do: go back to the text. We don’t sing a song like it’s a grocery list at Maxi or a grant application form.
On my show on QUB radio, the journalist from 7 days Patrick Delisle-Crevier told me the following anecdote regarding the interview he had with Sophie Grenier: “She said to me: Patrick, I was doing competitions, I was taking singing lessons, and I was reproached for not going high enough, for not reaching the notes. But me, that’s not what I want. I want a personality, I want an identity.
What distinguishes an ordinary performer from an extraordinary performer is not the vocal prowess, the showiness, the “show”. It’s not what happens outside, but what happens inside.
Frank Sinatra’s biographers also agree that he spent a lot of time reading the lyrics of the songs that were offered to him. He wanted to understand what was hidden behind the words, to transmit it with intelligence.
That’s why we say that a song is “embodied”. It’s because the interpreter has it in his flesh.
SOUND DOLL
Do you remember when there was a whole debate/scandal around the exclusion of Celine Dion from the list of the best singers of the Rolling Stone? That’s exactly what we were talking regarding. The best singers are not necessarily those who master the technique best. As proof: all these singers with ordinary voices who have had extraordinary careers.
What makes the difference is the “very little extra soul”, as France Gall sang in the song Ella.
And we can say that this soul, Sophie, she has it!
