Rêves Come True in Ottawa

Beautiful spring weather has finally arrived in Ottawa and the evening of May 8 was the perfect night for the Algonquin college Spring Launch concert featuring two Canadian Juno Award Winners, Preston Pablo https://www.prestonpablo.com/ and Rêve https://www.revemtlmusic.com/ .

Preston Pablo, the 21 year old singer originally from Timmins, Ontario and 2023 Junos Breakthrough Artist of the Year award winner, took the stage first at his alma mater. The stage set up was simple, lit in a bluey purple with a projection of his name, he appeared clad in an eye-catching red shirt and opened with ‘Runaway,’ asking the crowd to move closer so he could sing directly to them.

It was a small but loud and excited crowd and as it was easy for Preston to make eye contact with every audience member, it felt very intimate, yet casual and special. It was as if Preston was among friends the way he laughed endearingly in the quiet moments between songs and shared stories with the crowd about times at Algonquin, or ex girlfriends.

 

He asked the crowd to sing along with his catchy newest single ‘Ayayay.’ Although he gently made fun of the quality of the singing voices of those in the crowd it didn’t seem to dissuade anyone from singing along to his other songs. He played songs for his fans from the early days of his career, ‘STFU’, ‘OMO,’ and told a funny story about meeting a girl at a gas station convenience store before ‘Love Me Bad’ on which he took over the drum kit to the mass delight of the crowd. Preston treated the crowd to a performance of his single dropping later this week, ‘For Keeps’ and he ended his set, not surprisingly, with the song that changed his life, his biggest hit to date, the 2023 Juno Single of the Year nominee, “Flowers Need Rain.’

 

The crowd was into a treat for the surprise intermission drag show, featuring local Ottawa queens. Hosted by Devona Coe and also featuring Yeti The Drag Queen, Sophia Sapphire, Beirut and Kara Milk. These queens all know how to DANCE and they wowed the crowd with fantastic lip sync numbers to the songs of queens in their own right, artists such as Britney Spears and Beyoncé.

 

The stage went dark, a clock chimed and an ominous voice over story set the stage for the show to come. The stage set up remained simple with her name projected in a red and cloudy night sky font in the background, a masked DJ was on the side of the stage and two backup dancers flanked Montreal raised, Rêve, as she appeared on stage. She was dressed in a shiny gold ensemble which she would later change (after a 90’s dance hit medley showcasing the talents of her DJ and dancers) for a bright red ensemble that although not a latex catsuit brought to mind Britney in her ‘Oops!…I did It Again’ Video.

 

The beginning of her set featured some of her singles, ‘All Night & Everyday’ and ‘Skin 2 Skin’ among them. Rêve won the 2023 Juno for Dance Recording of the Year, so she certainly knows how to get a crowd moving and the infectious beat meant that no one seemed to mind if some of her tracks were new and unfamiliar to them. She too made the night feel intimate and special as she also shared stories of the influences and experiences behind the tracks and had no trouble entertaining the crowd while some minor technical difficulties were fixed. She spoke about trying to impress older men at strip clubs in her late teens and the advice she would give herself now (she’s put it into a song of course) and about her memories of sitting around the grand piano at home with friends growing up.

 

She led the crowd in a sing along cover of Robyn’s hit ‘Dancing On My Own’ before a lively performance of her own single ‘Tongue’ which had the drag queens who had joined the crowd leading the audience in shouting out one of the key lines of the song “Are You Famous?” Rêve ended her set with her singles currently getting radio play ‘Headphones,’ ‘Whitney’ and ‘CTL+ALT+DEL’ and sent the small satisfied crowd dancing home.

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