Check out the video for "The Only Thing I know For Sure" !!!

Thanks to all of you who participated!

What a Day that was!

First off I want to say thank you to all of you who came to be a part of the video shoot! We had a great day full of smiles and sunshine, which is exactly what we wanted and needed for this summer video of "The Only Thing I Know for Sure".

We got to Toronto Island for about 8:30am and shot until 9pm. I have to say, everybody was incredibly patient yesterday. Some people came from very far to be there ie. Marie Lyne and Michael, our couple who drove in from Montreal!! I still can't believe that... Thanks so much guys.

Shout out to the kids who participated because this was a very long day for them and they held it through, thanks to a few games and songs!

I promised them that we would go swimming at some point. Little Kennedy asked me after about 15 minutes on the set: "So Julie, can we go swimming now?" I said: "No Kennedy, we'll go later on, when we're done the video ok?". She would ask after almost every shot, not realizing that it takes an entire day to shoot a 4 min video! Poor little girl.... but she got right back into it every time. She was a trooper.

This video is all about summertime and fun. I can't wait to see it! We had a few surprises, very normal for outside shoots... we had to wait for all kinds of things to pass through our shots: we waited on clouds to pass by, bicycle clubs to roll by, construction workers to wheel their materials through the shot and even a group of around 10 elderly people ALL in wheelchairs to get past us... We saw it all!

"Julie! Can we go swimming now?" "No Kennedy, we have to wait just a little longer..."

We had little kids playing games and eating all the sweets. We had artists eating all the popcorn... (oh yeah that was me) We had lots of people coming in and out to be a part of the parade that was following me to my "boyfriend's" place - you'll understand when you see the video.

When lunch came around, the crew offered me some beautiful flowers and a cake with a candle on it. How sweet. Thanks guys, that was a really nice thought.

Then we got right back on the task at hand and shot some more. Pat, the assistant director is rounding up the troops to make sure we're all where we're supposed to be. He often finds me next to the bag of Popcorn and the kids at the Pop cooler...

"Julie! Can we go swimming now?" " Almost there Kennedy! Almost there!"

We finally make it to the end of the video where my "pretend boyfriend" awaits. Cute guy. For the "piece de resistance", he has to pick me up and swing me around like we're in love. 30 "swirls" later, he wouldn't admit it but I think our model was getting a little tired. ;)

and CUT!

Kennedy! Get your bathing suit! WE'RE GOING SWIMMING!

Check out the shots on the myspace page!!!

I am releasing one more single off "A Better Place". Yes! You guessed it: it's gonna be "The Only Thing I Know for Sure". A great summer jam!

Here's the cool thing about it: we are shooting the video and WE NEED AS MANY PEOPLE AS POSSIBLE TO BE IN THE VIDEO!!

The second cool thing is that the shoot is happening ON MY BIRTHDAY!!!!

The video shoot is going to be on the Toronto Islands on July 10th! (July 11th if it's raining). We need a crowd of around 200 people to achieve the vision of the video.

If you are free on July 10 early in the morning until early afternoon, and you want to be in my next video, please send an email to info@juliec.com with your:

-first and last name
-phone number
-email address
(please note that the ferry travel will be covered by us)

EVERYONE is welcome to participate! Bring your brother, your sister, your friends, your mom, anyone you can bring!!!

Once you let us know that you're coming, we'll send you all the details via email about what to wear, what to bring, what time to be there, etc...

Thanks guys! See you ON MY BIRTHDAY!



MONTREAL:

Je veux remercier les gens qui se sont déplacés pour venir nous voir chez O Patro Vys le 27 Juin. Ce fut un spectacle tout à fait spécial pour nous. Mes musiciens m'ont dit que c'est la première fois qu'ils font un show et qu'ils ne comprennent absoluement RIEN de ce que j'ai dit toute la soirée!

Ça leur a fait drôle que je parle en français! Ils entendaient la salle rire auz éclats et ils se demandaient si on riait à leurs dépends... mais PAS DU TOUT ;)

Merci encore d'avoir contribué à cette mémorable soirée. On reviendra bientôt!!!

I went on a trip to QC city with my band 2 days ago. It took me 3 times at Canadian Tire to get the air conditioning working in my van "Beatrice". You need to understand, there was no way I was taking these fine musicians on a long road trip with no AC in the van so I had to fight hard to make it happen.

So finally after much heartache at the garage, I picked up my 4 guys at their houses and by 11am, we are on the 401, heading to MTL. Beatrice was working extra hard to drag all 5 of us + our instruments in the U-Haul!

We made it 1 hour outside of Toronto just past Bowmanville and we notice the O/D light on the car is flashing. No problem, it's happened before. But he smell… not so much. Everything was ok until a car honked us to mention the smoke coming from under the car. AHHHHHGGGRRR…

Long story short, we ended up on the side of the road waiting for a tow truck. The 20 min CAA promised quickly turned into 3 hours.

Once we made it to the Canadian Tire garage in Bowmanville,- it's like I was doing a guided tour of the Canadian Tires- theses guys did everything they could to get us back on the road (shout out to Jamie and Chrissy!). They even drove us to Avis in Oshawa for us to rent a HUGE SUBURBAN to get us going. I was sad to find out I was going to have to leave Beatrice behind on this one…

This long waiting time was filled with jokes and good vibes. They were so great about it. They waited patiently and helped me as much as they could. When there was nothing we could do but wait, they went for drinks at Kelsey's to pass the time.

At 8pm (7 waiting hours later), we were on the road again and made it all the way to QC city with a short stop at Schwartz in Montreal, of course… (I think my drummer Roger would've broken into tears if we hadn't stopped for this mouth-watering sandwich he had been dreaming of for a week now…)

We got to QC city, I ran to a radio station interview and made it just in time for a wicked show! In retrospect, that was tons of fun! Long live Rock n Roll.

My new video for Rich Girl is finally out! Here is the youtube clip!

It's already on muchmoremusic and on Bravo so make sure to request it!! I hope you like it.

Let me know what you think.

Julie

My GOD it's been so busy I've totally neglected my Blog! This is supposed to be the time I write on my Blog to tell you all about what's happening...

Well... here's a big one.

I just got BIG news today. A Better Place is 8 on the iTunes Soul RnB Charts in Canada!!!!

I Can't believe it! Side by side with Aretha Franklin, Stevie Wonder, Sam Cooke, Amy Winehouse.

This is a good feeling. A Great feeling!

Thank you to all radio stations for making my single 18 in Canada and 8 on iTunes. Thank you to all of you fans for helping spread the word about it.

If you get a chance, you can write your own review of my album on itunes here.

I also want to send a shout out to everyone in Montreal who came out to our show at the Balcon Théatre. It was a magical night. Full house and such a warm crowd. We loved it so much we are planning to come out again next month. We'll keep you posted.

Thanks again and I'll write again real soon.

Julie

Play It Forward I was a night to remember. Last night was like a dream. All this time planning and thinking about this show, running it over and over in my head finally happened last night.

There were about 100 kids on stage with us singing and playing instruments! I just can’t even believe that we did that. The kids were so great. They were everything I ever thought they would be.

The horn section just rocked! This kid Ryan did a super solo on the saxophone, he was just fearless... (his mouth piece loosened during the beginning of the solo and instead of stopping and giving up he just fixed it like and went on to play his solo like a pro... I was very impressed)

The flute and clarinet sextet was beautiful. They just made the song so much more intense and special.

The concert band was out of this world and the choirs sang so great. Their voices just filled the room and I’m pretty sure that there was no dry eye in the audience at that particular point!

I’m completely overwhelmed and happy. Thank you to all the kids and teachers who got involved in this show and helped make it happen!

I can’t wait till next week to do it all over again in Hamilton!

Julie

I just came home today from a wonderful time New York city. We hung out with my friend Jake Langley and his beautiful and fun wife Naomi. They showed me few new spots around New York. We hung out with friends, played some music, had a few meetings, ate tons of great food and enjoyed the big city. The night of the show at the Living Room, the band was on fire....

After a surreal experience south of the border, I came home to a flooded schedule and went straight from the Buffalo airport to a rehearsal with 50 kids from the Grand Philharmonic Children’s Choir the Play It Forward show in Kitchener, which is just around the corner.

I arrived with my coffee at hand and a million things on my mind and I came home feeling inspired and feeling great. They sang songs for me. I sang songs for them. We sang together and worked on parts for the show. They had ideas to add to the show which were great! Time flew by and I left there floating on a cloud. It was so much fun. Thanks kids!

Each rehearsal I have with a new group for this show concept brings new inspiration and reinforces that this concept of making music with kids can really work. I feel really encouraged and I feel like I’m a part of something. This is what I always wanted.

I've been playing a lot lately. We've got a really busy schedule for this month.

I'm also on the road with the L'Oréal and La Roche Posay crew going across Canada for a promo event. I'm playing in a few select cities as well.

This was intercepted by CMW showcase this weekend. It was a real blast! Martyn and I had a great time playing for you folks at the Library Lounge. Thanks!

We did a live show for Q92 in Montreal which was lots of fun. I just posted the pictures on my page.

It was also a pleasure to hang out with Ken Connors and Moreen Holloway, two people who's voices I know like the back of my hand from listening to them all my teenage and young adult years living in Montreal.

I also met Sonia Benezra. Somehow I always knew that the day I met her she would be just like that: simple and friendly, like I'd known her all my life. This woman just embodies passion, compassion and love. I'm honored that she even knew my name when I walked in. Merci Sonia! You made my day!

I've been working on Play it Forward as well. The kids sound great. They are rehearsing like CRAZY and I just can't wait to play the first event on march 28 in Kitchener.

Anyways, I gotta get to bed now because I'm flying to Montreal tomorrow!

See you soon.

Julie

I began posting video diaries about the making of my Play it Forward concert series.

This is chapter 2.

I went to my first rehearsal today with the concert band that will be a part of the Hamilton show at Hamilton Place Studio on April 3rd!


You'll find chapter 1 and all others to come at www.myspace.com/playitfoward.