This performance is in French.

Les Surveillantes debut album, La racine carrée du cœur, released in fall 2010, highlights the group’s original and authentic sound. In compositions ranging from descriptions of love in terms of physics to satirical commentaries on urban sprawl, they paint a thoughtful portrait of the daily grind while pointing out its absurd and comical side. Their songs are inspired by the wide open spaces around them and by their own experience. With their direct and engaging style, both in performance and on disc, Les Surveillantes are clearly bound for great things. Not surprisingly, despite being relative newcomers they have already racked up an impressive number of prizes, including the 2009 People’s Choice award at the Gala manitobain de la chanson, Chant’Ouest, and the Granby International Song Festival, and the award for Outstanding Western Canadian Artist or Group at the 2011 Gala des prix Trille Or.

Akeem Ouellet will open the concert
Music has been part of Akeem Ouellet’s life since he was four. He writes about his personal experience and about his pride in being Franco-Ontarian. A talented multi-instrumentalist, he plays guitar, bass, drums, piano, mandolin, ukulele and more. In February 2011 he won an “Audience Favourite” award at the Quand ça nous chante festival in North Bay; he went on to perform at the Jeux de la francophonie canadienne in Sudbury and at Ontario POP 2011 in Ottawa, where he won the APCM Award.