Elisapie Covers Sheryl Crow Classic with 'Quviasukkuvit (If It Makes You Happy)'

Almost one year since the release of her highly-acclaimed album Inuktitut, Elisapie returns with “Quviasukkuvit (If It Makes You Happy),” her take on the Sheryl Crow classic that also took over the Nunavik radio airwaves when the Inuk artist was still a teenager. Translated into her mother tongue, the song was produced by her close collaborator Joe Grass. In addition to the twenty or so shows scheduled between now and 2025, including a rare New York City show at Joe’s Pub on October 5, Elisapie is currently in the running for the prestigious Polaris Music Prize.

Just like the songs on Inuktitut, “Quviasukkuvit (If It Makes You Happy)” is inspired by one of Elisapie’s childhood memories: “An image that always comes to mind, no matter where I travel or live, is of the people dancing at the magical and dramatic Ikkarivvik Bar in Kuujjuaq. In my mind's eye, it is always Friday night, and the moon is full. Most people are either a little drunk or very drunk. The bar and the dancefloor are an escape, and people dance to forget and escape. I recognize so many faces and I can see their smiles and closed eyes as they dance.

If It Makes You Happy was so popular in the North, and it reminds me so much of when I was a teenager. It played on TV and radio, and we listened to it at home. Those lines made us want to scream along with Sheryl. Her song liberates my people in the North, giving them the words to shout about being sad without feeling ashamed. When I perform this song, it has Sheryl Crow's enthusiasm, but my Inuit sensibility slows it down, echoing the rhythm of the land.”

Elisapie also shared a music video for the song directed by Philippe Léonard. “Elisapie is an artist who can transcend darkness to bring out light and hope,” explains the director. “I wanted to pay tribute to what this woman of immeasurable strength means to me. This choreography of shadows is inspired by the stratified mineral landscape of Salluit, where this Qupanuaq (bird) was born.”

Having won the JUNO Award for Contemporary Indigenous Artist or Group of the Year with Inuktitut in March 2024, Elisapie is now in the running for the Polaris Music Prize, to be awarded at Toronto's Massey Hall on September 17th.This fall, Elisapie will present the show Uvattini (meaning “home” in Inuktitut) in Vancouver (Sept. 28, Chan Centre), Québec City (Dec. 9, Grand Théâtre de Québec) and Montréal (Dec. 11, Montréal). Directed by Émilie Monnet, the show combines music, storytelling, video and performance. Representations in Sherbrooke and Brossard are also planned in 2025.
 
Meanwhile, the Inuktitut tour continues throughout next year with dates in New York City, Toronto, Ottawa and more. See the list below or visit elisapie.com for all tour dates.

About Inuktitut

On Inuktitut, Elisapie reinvigorates the poetry of 10 legendary songs (by Leonard Cohen, Blondie, Pink Floyd, and Fleetwood Mac to name a few) by translating and singing them in her mother tongue. The raw sounds of the thousand-year-old Inuit language gives each track a unique and deeply personal quality. Each song, produced by her close collaborator Joe Grass, is linked to a loved one or an intimate story that shaped Elisapie’s identity. Through this act of cultural reappropriation, she tells her story and offers these songs as a gift to her community, making her language and culture resonate beyond the borders of the Inuit territory. 
 
Elisapie’s fourth solo album came out in September 2023. In addition to spending four weeks in the Top 10 album sales chart in Canada, and five consecutive weeks at #1 on the earshot! chart, the album garnered attention from KEXP, Le Monde, Vogue, Rolling Stone, The National (CBC News), ELLE Canada, Exclaim!, CBC Music, The Globe and Mail and many others. Since its release, Elisapie has played more than 60 concerts in Canada, Europe and the United States.

About Elisapie

Elisapie's unconditional attachment to her territory and her language, Inuktitut, remains at the core of her creative journey. Born and raised in Salluit, a small village in Nunavik which is only accessible by plane, Elisapie is an emblematic Canadian Inuk singer-songwriter. Since winning her first JUNO Award in 2005 with her band Taima, Elisapie’s body of work has been praised many times. Her 2018 album The Ballad of the Runaway Girl was shortlisted for the Polaris Music Prize, and earned her numerous Félix Awards as well as a JUNO nomination. Since then, the Inuk artist performed with the Orchestre Métropolitain de Montréal at the invitation of Yannick Nézet-Séguin, at the SummerStage Festival in New York City’s Central Park, and at the NPR offices for her own Tiny Desk Session, as well as at several local and international venues and festivals. 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.

Tour dates

14/09/2024 Abiquiu, NM - Ghost Ranch Music Festival
28/09/2024 Vancouver, BC - Chan Centre for the Performing Arts - UVATTINI
30/09/2024 Calgary, AB - National Music Center - Studio Bell
05/10/2024 New York, NY - Joe’s Pub
08/11/2024 Toronto, ON - The Opera House
14/11/2024 Terrebonne, QC - Théâtre du Vieux-Terrebonne SOLD OUT
15/11/2024 Saint Damien, QC - Maison de la culture de Bellechasse SOLD OUT
16/11/2024 Saint-Casimir, QC - Les Grands Bois SOLD OUT
21/11/2024 Sainte-Thérèse, QC - Théâtre Lionel-Groulx
22/11/2024 Sainte-Agathe-des-Monts, QC - Théâtre Le Patriote SOLD OUT
23/11/2024 LaSalle, QC - Théâtre Desjardins
29/11/2024 Saint-Hyacinthe, QC - Centre des arts Juliette-Lassonde SOLD OUT
30/11/2024 Trois-Rivières, QC - Salle Anaïs-Allard-Rousseau SOLD OUT
09/12/2024 Québec City, QC - Grand Théâtre de Québec - UVATTINI
11/12/2024 Montréal, QC - MTELUS - UVATTINI
14/12/2024 Verchères, QC - L'Église du Village
04/04/2025 Brossard, QC - Théâtre Manuvie - UVATTINI
05/04/2025 Ottawa, ON - National Arts Centre - Baps Theater - UVATTINI
24/04/2025 Saguenay, QC - Théâtre C - Festival Jazz et Blues de Saguenay - UVATTINI
25/04/2025 Sherbrooke, QC - Granada - UVATTINI
26/04/2025 L'Assomption, QC - Théâtre Hector-Charland - UVATTINI

Photo Credit: Vladim Vilain

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