So I went to the Canadian Radio Music Awards yesterday at the Royal York Hotel in downtown Toronto. I was nominated but I didn't win. It's fine. Because "Lights" won. She seems like a good artist with a good song. I was happy to see her pick it up.

The room was full of the best of the Canadian music industry, when my name came up during the nomination, there was a good roar of applause and cheer. That was my consolation. It felt good to know that people in the industry knew and like what I'm doing.

I would have to say that the highlight of the awards show was Sass Jordan. She did a great job hosting the show. It's funny because her foul mouth "au natural" gives the first 5 minutes quite an awkward feeling. She's reading the script on the tele-prompter and embarks on this out of character lovey-dovy speech about "the music in our hearts" or something like that. She abruptly interrupts herself right in the middle of it with a smile: "didn't we cut this shit out of the script? come on! scroll down!" leaving the crowd half laughing, half in shock by her boldness.

What can I say, she's a rock n roller... Somehow, her personality reels you in and in a short time, you get on her band wagon and just roll with it. She made it fun! The TV version will probably be one long beep. :)

Anyway, it was a fun day and the food was delicious.

Better luck at the Smooth Jazz awards next month!

Julie

So on Thursday I went out to St-Mary and St-Hellen schools to introduce myself to the kids who are going to participate in our next Play It Forward adventure taking place in Hamilton in April.

The last show in Laval was all about strings.This time is all about voices. We are preparing a show with a choir of 300 kids. NO it is not a typo! I said 300, yes maam!

In this case, I really need the help from my good friend Nikki for this one because it feels kindof overwhelming. Nikki sings in my band and she is also a GREAT vocal coach. She teaches a lot of kids so that will come in handy. The plan is that we are actually going to be teaching the song "Shine" to 2 entire schools (150 kids each) in Hamilton and asking them to come up on stage with us the night of the show on April 2nd in Hamilton...

So today, I went around the schools with Nikki and walked up to each class to say hello and tell them about the Play It Forward project. We visited kids all the way from JK to grade 8. We got all kinds of response from class to class.

Most kids would ask if we were famous. Some asked if THEY were going to be famous after the show! One of them asked us immediately as we walked in if we had a nice house! One said, OH! That's you singing??? I though you were black! Some classes stared at us with a petrified look on their face while other classes attacked me for my autograph! We just had to be ready for anything!

We made some classes sing just to get them going in the feeling. One little girl was SOOOO into it, it just broke my heart. She had her eyes closed and was swaying her body to the sound of her grade 3 class singing "SHIIIIIIIIIIIINE!". After we were done the exercise, she scoots over to me and whispers to me with her cute little lisp: " I closthed my eyesth while I was sthinging and I sthounded almostht exactly like you Julie!" OH my GOD, she was adorable.

Anyway, needless to say it's going to be quite an event to have 150 of these cuties in a room and trying to get them to sing the same song all together. Heart warming... That's next Thursday's rehearsal. Wish me luck!

I'll keep you posted on how it works out.

Julie

Voici un email que j'ai reçu aujourd'hui. Je vous conseille de prendre une minute et de lire le texte. C'est impressionnant.

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Le musicien de rue était debout dans l'entrée de la station « Enfant Plaza » du métro de Washington DC. Il a commencé à jouer du violon. C'était un matin froid, en janvier dernier.

Il a joué durant quarante-cinq minutes. Pour commencer, la chaconne de la 2ème partita de Bach, puis l'Ave Maria de Schubert, du Manuel Ponce, du Massenet et à nouveau, du Bach.

A cette heure de pointe, vers 8h du matin, quelques milliers de personnes ont traversé ce couloir, pour la plupart en route vers leur travail.

Après trois minutes, un homme d'âge mûr a remarqué qu'un musicien jouait. Il a ralenti son pas, s'est arrêté quelques secondes puis a démarré en accélérant.

Une minute plus tard, le violoniste a reçu son premier dollar : en continuant droit devant, une femme lui a jeté l'argent dans son petit pot.

Peu après, un quidam s'est appuyé sur le mur d'en face pour l'écouter mais il a regardé sa montre et a recommencé à marcher. Il était clairement en retard.

Celui qui a marqué le plus d'attention fut un petit garçon qui devait avoir trois ans. Sa mère l'a tiré, pressé mais l'enfant s'est arrêté pour regarder le violoniste. Finalement sa mère l'a secoué et agrippé brutalement afin que l'enfant reprenne le pas. Toutefois, en marchant, il a gardé sa tête tournée vers le musicien.

Cette scène s'est répétée plusieurs fois avec d'autres enfants. Et les parents, sans exception, les ont forcés à bouger.

Durant les trois quarts d'heure de jeu du musicien, seules sept personnes se sont vraiment arrêtées pour l'écouter un temps. Une vingtaine environ lui a donné de l'argent tout en en continuant leur marche. Il a récolté 32 dollars.

Personne ne l'a remarqué quand il a eu fini de jouer. Personne n'a applaudi.
Sur plus de mille passants, seule une personne l'a reconnu.
Ce violoniste était Joshua Bell, actuellement un des meilleurs musiciens de la planète. Il a joué dans ce hall les partitions les plus difficiles jamais écrites, avec un Stradivarius valant 3,5 millions de dollars.

Deux jours avant de jouer dans le métro, sa prestation future au théâtre de Boston était « sold out » avec des prix avoisinant les 100 dollars la place.

C'est une histoire vraie. L'expérience a été organisée par le « Washington Post » dans le cadre d'une enquête sur la perception, les goûts et les priorités d'action des gens.

Les questions étaient : dans un environnement commun, à une heure inappropriée, pouvons-nous percevoir la beauté ? Nous arrêtons-nous pour l'apprécier ? Reconnaissons- nous le talent dans un contexte inattendu ?

Une des possibles conclusions de cette expérience pourrait être : si nous n'avons pas le temps pour nous arrêter et écouter un des meilleurs musiciens au monde, jouant pour nous gratuitement quelques-unes des plus belles partitions jamais composées, avec un violon Stradivarius valant 3,5 millions de dollars, à côté de combien d'autres choses passons-nous ?

A méditer ...

http://fr.youtube. com/watch? v=hnOPu0_ YWhw

Yesterday was our 4th edition of Play It Forward in Laval, Québec....

It's WAAAAYYY too early in the morning and we're already in the car driving back to Toronto with my band. It's pouring rain and I'm sitting in the car between the guys and the gear. We're exhausted but there's a lightness in the air as we go over all the details and special moments that happened at the show last night... Remembering the power of Dominique's cello solo, the smooth delivery of the string octet during Rich Girl, the wave of energy of the orchestra AND choir during Precious Love and the spontaneous response of the audience, the new found “funk” of the horn section, made us all forget about all the technical dilemmas we had to overcome in order to make it there.

The long road that lead up to the this magnificent show with 120 string players, horn players and choir members was well worth it. And the big moment came and went and now has already become part of the memories. Beautiful memories.

I'm driving back to Toronto from my hometown of Montreal with a great sense of pride and renewed energy. Even the rain can't tame the sunshine in my heart. Thank you for a wonderful show kids. I'm very grateful to have shared the stage with you last night.

See you soon!

Bonjour à Tous!

Je vous donne rendez-vous le soir de la St-Valentin à BELLE ET BUM à l'antenne de Télé-Québec à 21h! Enfin, je pourra rencontrer Normand! On me dit qu'il est charmant.

J'y serai avec mes Aieux! Ils m'ont même demandé de chanter avec eux. Ce sera un show super. À ne pas manquer!

Donc, entre deux baisers et quelques chocolats, ce 14 février, je vous invite à allumer le téléviseur quelques instants et de danser quelques pas avec votre amoureux ou amoureuse au son de quelques chanson de Julie C!

Bonne St-Valentin!

Julie



Hello everyone!

I'll be performing live on the Belle et Bum television show on Valentines Day on the Télé-Québec channel at 9 pm this Saturday!

If you get this channel on your cable, check just turn on the TV in between kisses and a couple of chocolates. It should be a blast!

If you don't have access to this channel, look out for youtube postings after the show!

Happy Valentines day!

Julie

A brand new year has already started. I can't believe it's already the 27th. I guess it is true that the years go by faster and faster as you get older. Man! What's it gonna be like when I'm 60!

They say you can wish happy new year during all of January! (some debate that, but eh... this is my blog, I do what I want). HAPPY NEW YEAR since I only have a few days left to tell ya!

2008 was a blast. It went so fast! Great things happened, such as great nominations, we hit the top 10 most downloaded record on itunes, made cool videos, we went to Atlanta, NYC, Marseilles, I became a god mother, I sang on an Advil commercial (yes! the secret is revealed! it is me...) , I did 3 Play It Forward shows, and many other things I am forgetting...

Not so good things happened, poor Beatrice stalled on the 401 (that's my band van - she's old so you gotta forgive) and my precious band was in it, my mom got cancer (but she kicked it's butt), I got a leak in my ceiling during the rainiest summer I've ever seen in my life, Bush said the words "Nucular" many many times,a young singer fainted on the stage during Play It Forward (she's fine now though...), and many other things I would like to forget about...

So at Christmas, I ate way too much food, danced all night (my family still loves to move the couches and turn on the tunes) and closed the year 2008 shut with a touch of champagne my brother in law brought from the south of France.

Now I must say 2009 looks like a good one with the first real event to happen being Mister Obama entering the white house. That's an inspiration for all. Inauguration was something I'm glad to have seen during my lifetime.

On a lighter note, 2009 already came with one of the best movies I've seen in years : benjamin button. Did you see that? Food for the soul.

That's the movie you've always wanted to see. It's the movie you hope is gonna play every single time you put a DVD on. Just a beautiful story, told by outstanding actors; Cate Blanchett is hands down my favorite actress. Her Elegance and competence just make me feel powerful. Funny. Kind of like Obama. Elegance and competence. Hmmmmm maybe that's the theme for 2009.

I drink to that. To elegance and competence!

So we went to Europe and came back and I just HIT "DE" GROUND RUNNING!! I guess that's just my life... It doesn't stop for one second. Don't get me wrong! I wouldn't have it any other way, but I'm telling you... the wheels never stop turning. I even make up "to do" lists in my sleep (I'm a BIG "to do" list person). I don't know how I would run my life without em.

Between the Europe touring, the Play It Forward events coming up, the TV performances lining up for the new year and recording a new record, there's just no time for ZZZZ's.

So while I'm at it, let me give you an update about Europe.

The shows in France went extremely well. The rooms were full of great warm crowds. There was definitely magic in the air. Avignon, thank you so much for singing so loud and making the show so energetic! Montpellier, your attention and energy was uplifting, thank you. and London! what a vibe! Glad to take home a little piece of London with me.

Thank you for the wine, the cheese, the friends, the kisses from my brand new godson, the friends and God bless the saucisson and anchoiade. So good.

Now that we've returned back home to the dawn of our Winter Wonderland, it's all about Play It Forward in Montreal.

I must say that I can't wait to get on the stage next week with the kids. I'm doing the last run of rehearsals with the singers from the EMSB choir and the musicians from the Jean XXIII concert band this week. Then, ready or not! it's the curtain call!!!

I hope many of you will come out to see this show. It promises to be full of life and fun. Can't wait! See you soon.

I'm ready to set foot in France for my first Europeen tour! I can't explain the feeling of anticipation of the  narrow winding roads and villages, the saucisson, the cheese, the tapenade and Provencal sunshine (even though I was told not to expect much at this time of year!), the great wine, the cheese, and did I mention the cheese?

I'm sitting in my seat on the airplane in Amsterdam ready for the last transfer to Marseilles. The lovely ladies from KLM are walking down the isles with their fancy blue suit (which constantly remind me of the movie “Catch me if you can”) offering us water and Heineken. I don't think I even fully realize what's going on. I mean I know I'm going to France and UK to introduce my music to a new country but I don't think it will sink in until I'm really there.

2 hours to go.

I can't believe all this leg work has finally led me to my first overseas performances! Martyn my guitar player and I are here to play a few acoustic shows. We're psyched! We're also heading to London next week for a show on November10th...

I must say that I'm pretty excited for a “bonus” reason: I'm also going to be meeting my godson for the first time. My sister , who conveniently lives in the south of France (....I know... very sad), just had a beautiful baby boy and she asked me to be his godmother. I can't wait to hold the little bundle of joy... he's just adorable on all the pictures...

I can feel that this is gonna be a very emotional trip.

Wish me luck!

Have you heard? We're putting together a Home Concert Tour!!!

If you haven't had the chance to out to the shows this year, you can request that we come out to YOUR HOUSE to play for you and your friends personally!!! All you have to do it round up about 30 friends and we're there! How fun!

That's gonna be a crazy concept! We already have a bunch of people who called in to schedule some dates with us! I'm looking forward to coming out to meet you guys, up close and personal! It'll be a great experience...

If you're interested, you can contact Chris Bennett from my management team at chris@juliec.com or at 416-516-1037. He can fill you in on all the details.

See you soon! In your living room! Julie

I went to Atlanta for the first time this weekend. What a blast! It was a rush cause we were only there for 2 beautiful sunny days and we got to do so much.

We were out there to play a show for the Atlantis Music Conference at a place called Vinyl.

This event was a blessing because it was also an opportunity to hook up with fellow singer songwriter Anthony David from Atlanta. What a great guy! Anthony was nice enough to hook us up with some of his musicians out there... but just when I thought it was too good to be true, he also took the time to take us all over Atlanta, introducing us to this great city.

He lugged us around, my drummer Roger, my manager Chris and I all through the "nooks and crannies" (is that how you write this? dunno) of Atlanta.

I must say that when I go back there Tony, the first place we're hitting is Five Point! Ahhh there's just too much unique stuff there! There's a great little music store called Moods music. Darryl, the owner's got all the Soul and Funk CDs you want. I couldn't stay there too long or else I would've spent all my money....

Oh! You should know that he took on some of my CDs out there so if Y"all from Atlanta are looking for A Better Place, just head straight to Moods!!!

We came home inspired from our weekend... ;) thanks Anthony. Can't wait to do it again!

Those of you from Toronto, I can't wait to introduce you to Anthony and his music. Anthony, you gotta make it to the Great White North sometime soon. OK? I GOT YOU.

;)