The Félix Award (french: Trophée Félix or Prix Félix) is an award, given by the ''Association du disque, de l'industrie du spectacle québécois'' (
ADISQ
ADISQ (french: Association québécoise de l'industrie du disque, du spectacle et de la video; eng, Québec Association for the Recording, Concert and Video Industries, link=yes) is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to support the indepen ...
) on an annual basis to artists working in the music and humor industry in the
Canadian province
Within the geographical areas of Canada, the ten provinces and three territories are sub-national administrative divisions under the jurisdiction of the Canadian Constitution. In the 1867 Canadian Confederation, three provinces of British North ...
of
Quebec
Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...
.
The award
The first Félix awards were presented on September 23, 1979. The idea belonged to the first president of ADISQ, Gilles Talbot. The award trophy was created by Marc-André Parisé.
The awards are named in honour of Quebec songwriter
Félix Leclerc
Félix Leclerc, (August 2, 1914 – August 8, 1988) was a French-Canadian singer-songwriter, poet, writer, actor and '' Québécois'' political activist. He was made an Officer of the Order of Canada on December 20, 1968. Leclerc was posth ...
.
In contrast to the
Juno Award
The Juno Awards, more popularly known as the JUNOS, are awards presented annually to Canadian musical artists and bands to acknowledge their artistic and technical achievements in all aspects of music. New members of the Canadian Music Hall of ...
s, whose nominations are based partially on record sales, nominations and winners of the Félix are decided by ADISQ members. The awards are given during an annual ceremony "Gala de l'ADISQ". Among the categories are Best-selling album, Best album (in various music genres), Songwriter of the year, Composer of the year, Song of the year, Male/Female singer of the year, Discovery of the year, Show of the year, etc.
The awards have sometimes been controversial. In 1983, songwriter
Luc Plamondon
Luc Plamondon, OC, CQ (b. March 2, 1942 in Saint-Raymond, Quebec), is a French-Canadian lyricist and music executive. He is best known for his work on the musicals ''Starmania'' and ''Notre-Dame de Paris''.
He is the brother of Louis Plamondo ...
attracted controversy by using his acceptance speech to denounce
copyright
A copyright is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the exclusive right to copy, distribute, adapt, display, and perform a creative work, usually for a limited time. The creative work may be in a literary, artistic, education ...
law. In 1991,
Céline Dion
Céline Marie Claudette Dion ( ; born 30 March 1968) is a Canadian singer. Noted for her powerful and technically skilled vocals, Dion is the best-selling Canadian recording artist, and the best-selling French-language artist of all time. Her ...
publicly refused the Félix for
anglophone
Speakers of English are also known as Anglophones, and the countries where English is natively spoken by the majority of the population are termed the ''Anglosphere''. Over two billion people speak English , making English the largest language ...
artist of the year for her English-language album ''
Unison
In music, unison is two or more musical parts that sound either the same pitch or pitches separated by intervals of one or more octaves, usually at the same time. ''Rhythmic unison'' is another term for homorhythm.
Definition
Unison or per ...
'', not considering herself an anglophone artist. Instead she suggested to ADISQ to create a new award category for an artist who achieved the most success internationally. The next year such category was indeed created : Most successful artist performing in a language other than French (french: Artiste s’étant le plus illustré dans une autre langue que le français)
Ceremonies
Partial list of recipients
See also
*
List of Quebec musicians
This is a list of singers, bands, composers and other musicians from the province of Quebec.
Blues
* Garou – also pop
* Okoumé – also néo-trad, rock and electronica
* Roxanne Potvin – singer, guitarist
* David Wilcox
Chanson
* D ...
*
Music of Quebec
Like many cosmopolitan cities, Quebec is a home for all genres of music. From folk music to hip hop music, hip hop, music has always played an important role in Quebecer culture. In the 1920s and '30s singer/songwriter La Bolduc, Madam Bolduc pe ...
*
Culture of Quebec
The culture of Quebec emerged over the last few hundred years, resulting predominantly from the shared history of the French-speaking North American majority in Quebec. Québécois culture, as a whole, constitutes all distinctive traits – spiri ...
References
External links
ADISQ
{{DEFAULTSORT:Felix Award
Canadian music awards
Quebec music
Awards established in 1979