SOCAN proudly saluted its members' outstanding achievements at the 20th annual SOCAN Awards, held on Tuesday, November 24, at the Hyatt Regency Montreal Hotel.

The debonair and very talented Michel Rivard hosted the awards presentation with his proverbial verve, warning his audience from the word go that “the ceremony hasn’t started yet and you can already feel the love. How could we not love SOCAN? Where would we be without it?” In this return engagement as SOCAN Awards host, Rivard delighted the audience with his typical humour, introducing one of the winners in the Pop Song category, K.Maro, by admitting: “I don’t know this next winner very well, but I like him a lot because he’s got a name that sounds like my car!”

As part of this special 20th anniversary edition, SOCAN Awards were presented to authors, composers and music publishers for their 2008 accomplishments in the pop, concert, instrumental, film and television music genres. Clémence DesRochers, who made her mark as a singer-songwriter, a poet, a delightful comedienne and more, collecting fans of all ages, was presented with the Lifetime Achievement Award. With heartfelt modesty, she pointed out that her “real talent has been for enlisting the best composers, like Marc Larochelle, François Cousineau or Jean-Marie Benoît, since I have never been able to write my own tunes. These are the people who set my poems to music.” In top form the day after celebrating her 76th birthday, she had words or reassurance for her fans: “Don’t worry. I’ll keep creating opportunities for us to meet. You are my reason to go on!”

Marc Antoine and his co-writer Sonny Black, who have become household names across the French-speaking world, collected this year’s International Award. The Chanson Révélation award went to François Lafontaine and Louis-Jean Cormier, of the very popular group Karkwa, and the Special Achievement Award was presented to the musical industry pioneer Robert Vinet by his old friend Yvon Deschamps, who acknowledged his great honesty and tenacity.

Three winners in the Popo Music Awards category, Marie-Mai, David Bussières, and Justine Laberge (Alfa Rococo). (Photo: Michel Gagné)

The creators of several Quebec songs having achieved more than 25,000 radio plays received SOCAN Classics awards. They included Luc De Larochellière and Marc Pérusse, Paul Piché, Patrick Bourgeois and his co-writers Pierre Houle, Maryse Aumais and Geneviève Lapointe, Luc Plamondon, Michel Pagliaro and Jimmy James, all still very active on the music scene. Pagliaro, who was one of the show’s guest performers, electrified the audience with a medley of his his hits that was one of the evening’s best performances.

The other music creators being honoured included pop or rock composers such as Éric Lapointe, Daniel Lavoie, Louise Forestier, David Bussières and Justine Laberge of Alfa Rococo, Ariane Moffatt, Jonathan Painchaud, Jean-François Breau, Marie-Mai and Marc Dupré, Sylvain Cossette and his co-writer Andrée Watters, dual award winner Steve Veilleux (Kaïn), and K.Maro and his co-writer Louis Côté. The veteran instrumental composer Germain Bourque received the Hagood Hardy Award, while the internationally known Jacques Hétu was honoured with the New Classical Music Award.

The Patron of Music award was presented to the Quebec Corporation of Bar, Pub and Tavern Owners, represented by its president Renaud Poulin, who recalled the difficulties he originally experienced in trying to convince his members to get a SOCAN performing rights licence. “Some of them took a while to understand the difference between one more tax and your rights,” he said. “But these are your rights. And without music, our places of business would be quite bland.”