Elisapie unveils a performance filmed among the MMFA’s Inuit art collection before resuming her tour

On the eve of National Indigenous Peoples Day (June 21), Inuk singer-songwriter Elisapie unveils a never-before-seen performance of the song Quviasukkuvit (If It Makes You Happy), filmed at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (MMFA). She performs her Inuktitut rendition of the Sheryl Crow hit among the many works by Inuit artists featured in ᐆᒻᒪᖁᑎᒃ uummaqutik: essence of life, a display of selected pieces from the MMFA’s collection of Inuit art.

Available via YouTube, this intimate performance born of a collaboration between Elisapie and the MMFA seeks to bring Indigenous and non-Indigenous communities closer together while celebrating Inuit culture.

It was an honour for me to sing in this gallery filled with works by great Inuit artists, including a member of my own family, the late Bobby Quppaapik Tarkirk, says Elisapie. I felt right at home. Nakurmiik.

On Saturday, June 28, Elisapie will present a large-scale headline concert at the Montreal Jazz Festival, before resuming her tour until the end of the year. In addition to her performances at the Smithsonian Federal Museum in New York and the Osaka 2025 Expo in Japan this summer, several Canadian dates are scheduled in the coming months, including shows at the Mariposa Folk Festival, the Calgary Folk Festival, the Vancouver Folk Festival, the Capitol Theatre in Moncton, The Danforth Music Hall in Toronto, and many more. See the list below and visit elisapie.com for further information.

For the fifth year in a row, Elisapie is handling the artistic direction and co-production of the TV special Le grand solstice, in which she also performs. The show will air this Saturday, June 21, at 8 PM EDT ​ – on APTN lumi, ICI TÉLÉ, Télé-Québec, ICI MUSIQUE, ICI TOU.TV and Radio-Canada OHdio – to celebrate National Indigenous Peoples Day.

Elisapie also co-directed the documentary Hudson Bay(bies), l'héritage méconnu, which was broadcast earlier this week on ICI TÉLÉ and is currently available on TOU.TV. Through her eyes, we discover a part of Canada's history as we meet those who, like herself, are descendants of the white men sent by the Hudson's Bay Company to run its trading posts in Indigenous communities across the country.

Earlier this year, Elisapie took home her second Juno Award as a solo artist, this time in the Adult Alternative Album of the Year category, thanks to the success of Inuktitut. She also visited the KEXP studio in Seattle for a spellbinding live session during which she performed songs from her latest album, as well as classics from her previous effort The Ballad of the Runaway Girl (2018). 

About Inuktitut

Acclaimed by audiences and critics alike, Inuktitut was released in September 2023. In addition to spending four weeks in the Top 10 album sales chart in Canada, the album garnered attention from KEXP, Le Monde, Vogue, Rolling Stone, CBC, ELLE Canada, Exclaim!, The Globe and Mail and many others. It is the Inuk artist's second album to land a shortlist nomination for the Polaris Music Prize. Since its release, Elisapie has played over 90 shows in her home country and has toured in Europe, the U.S. and Australia. 

About Elisapie

Elisapie's unconditional attachment to her territory and language, Inuktitut, remains at the core of her creative journey. Born and raised in Salluit, a small village in Nunavik accessible only by plane, Elisapie is an emblematic Canadian Inuk singer-songwriter. Since winning her first JUNO Award in 2005 with her band Taima, her body of work has been praised many times. Always surrounded by the best musicians from the Montreal indie and folk scenes, Elisapie makes her culture resonate with finesse by mixing modernity and tradition.

Follow Elisapie : Facebook / Instagram / YouTube / Bandcamp

Tour dates