Juno Artist of the Year does Ottawa!

Charlotte Cardin was the most-nominated artist at the 2022 Juno Awards, receiving nods for Artist of the Year, Album of the Year, Pop Album of the Year, Single of the Year and Video of the Year, as well as the coveted Fan Choice Award. She sold out Ottawa’s Southam Hall for two nights and we were there to enjoy it.

Unless you’ve been living under a big Canadian rock, you’ve heard of Charlotte Cardin. If you haven’t, that’s ok. We’re here to fill you in on all the buzz! The 27 year old Montreal native made her public debut as a top 4 finalist on the popular Quebec talent show La Voix (The Voice). This appearance propelled her to fame in France where she appeared on the sister series La plus belle voix performing with one of the judges. Perfectly bilingual, as only those Montréalaises can be, she released her French/English solo debut EP, Big Boy, in 2016. In 2017, she was a SOCAN Songwriting Prize nominee in the English category for “Big Boy” and in the French category for “Faufile”, becoming the first artist to be nominated in both categories in the same year. Her success continued over the coming years, culminating in Charlotte becoming a multi Juno award-winning artist in 2022. Oh, and if that’s not enough, she’s had a modeling career since she was 15 and lately has appeared in the new campaigns of Kit and Ace, Melissa Nepton, Simons, and Marie St-Pierre. The sky seems to be the limit!

Opening for Charlotte on her Phoenix tour is 21 year old Toronto native Charlie Houston. Charlie’s music bravely bares her personal struggles in the arenas of mental health, heartbreak, and discovering the fluidity of her sexual identity. Her debut EP I Hate Spring features five downtempo pop tracks infusing progressive electronic sounds with raw, melodic guitar and pop R&B vocals. The poetic lyrics intentionally do not include pronouns because the beautifully crafted stories are authentically relatable to any listener. Charlie has just released her latest fun single Bitches in the Bathroom which is about the all-too-relatable experience of not being able to use the bathroom at a party because it’s full of people gossiping and filming videos for TikTok. Encouraging the audience to “get up, stand up!” she seemed a little ill at ease on the big stage, but was great opener for the evening ahead.

During the short intermission, one couldn’t help but notice that the crowd seemed to be particularly stylish. If you listened closely to these well-dressed concert goers, you could tell that we were in the Nation’s Capital. French and English intertwined as groups of twenty something year olds mixed with couples and mother-daughter combos. It was great to witness a true pop concert in such a stately venue as the National Arts Centre’s Southam Hall. We predict that the next time Charlotte Cardin plays Ottawa, we’ll see her at the Canadian Tire Centre. You hear it here first folks!

The sold out crowd rose to their feet as Charlotte took to the stage to cheers and applause. They remained standing throughout the majority of the show, which is saying something for an Ottawa crowd. Cardin had these fans in the palm of her hand from the moment she took the stage. They knew the words to all of the songs, both the tunes off of her debut album Phoenix and from her two EPs, Big Boy and Main Girl. They were happily shouting along all night, often enough drowning out Cardin’s voice. Cell phones illuminated big ballads, and the audience was treated to intimate guitar playing on a stool. Her soulful voice and the willowy way she moves her body on stage is truly hypnotizing and it’s clear why she is quickly becoming a Canadian icon.

Cardin makes a one-night pit stop in Switzerland before continuing her North American tour. Very few tickets are left for any of her shows, so pick them up soon or you will be disappointed.

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