SOCAN President Pierre-Daniel Rheault presented the organization’s third annual $5,000 Prix de la chanson ÉCHO Oct. 28 to Louis-Jean Cormier and François Lafontaine, of Karkwa, for the song "Oublie pas" (Dont’ Forget) at an informal ceremony held in SOCAN’s Montreal Office and attended by the media. Rheault stressed the role of this award in stimulating creativity among independent, up-and-coming songwriters in both official languages. The two Francophone winners, who came to collect their prize along with the other three members of their group, had been honoured the night before at the ADISQ "Other Gala," where Karkwa was presented with two Félix Awards for alternative album of the year and music video of the year.

Over the summer, an independent panel of 10 music community tastemakers selected the five songs they felt best showed the variety and creativity of independent, up-and-coming Francophone songwriters. Thousands of music lovers voted between Sept. 1 and 29 and, in the face of some stiff competition, “Oublie pas” emerged as the winning song.

The other nominated songs for SOCAN’s Prix de la chanson ÉCHO were:

• “Alinéa” written by Alexis Dufresne, Pascal Gingras, Fred Filo, Pierre Bouchard and Guillaume Duclos, performed by El Motor
• “La Paix des Braves” written by Samian, Biz, Chafiik and Batlam, performed by Samian and Loco Locass
• “The Christ is Right – Mange ta ville” written by Éric Brousseau, Jean Cyr, Dominique Hamel
and Jean Nicol, performed by Gatineau
• “Argelès” written by Youri Zaragoza, Nathan Howard, Jordan Larocque and François Lessard, performed by Bonjour Brumaire.

The Anglophone counterpart of the award, the ÉCHO Songwriting Prize, has been awarded to Stephen Carroll, John Samson, Greg Smith and Jason Tait of The Weakerthans for their song "Night Windows."

For further information on the Prix de la chanson ÉCHO, or to listen to the nominated songs, visit the ÉCHO website.