Francouvertes, a multi-week song competition providing young Francophone artists an opportunity to perform in a professional setting, network in the music industry and reach a new audience, staged its finals on May 3, 2010, at Montreal’s Club Soda. This year’s $10,000 grand prize winner, Bernard Adamus, also received SOCAN’s $1,000 Best Song Award for “Rue Ontario.” The other finalists were Alex Nevsky and Monogrenade. The SOCAN award was presented to Adamus by Karkwa’s Louis-Jean Cormier, who was the 2010 Francouvertes spokesperson, with David Marin. Adamus was the winner of SOCAN’s 4^th annual Prix de la chanson ÉCHO in 2009 for “La question à 100 piasses.”

Francouvertes, the first Quebec song competition to be adjudicated in equal parts by a music industry jury and attending audiences, is open to emerging Francophone artists and groups in all musical genres in Canada. For more information, please check the Francouvertes website.