Photo: Andréanne Gauthier
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A luminous shadow enters the dark, deserted cafe. Dominique Fils-Aimé may be entirely dressed in black, from the mask to the military boots, nothing helps: she radiates.
The shaved head, which she’s sported for years, has given way to long braids tied at the nape of the neck. Not only is the singer-songwriter naturally beautiful, she also exudes genuine goodness – benevolence, even.
As timid flakes fall on Old Montreal outside, his gold-rimmed fingers catch a latte. His third of the day. “In my case, it’s more coffee milk! »She says with a burst of laughter.
Self-taught artist, respected singer on the rise, committed woman: it is with all these facets of Dominique Fils-Aimé that I meet under the imposing arches of the old bank which now houses the chic Crew café – where only the workspaces offered for rent are accessible to customers in these times of pandemic.
In the room with the copper partitions where we sit down to discuss, the artist can finally reveal his warm smile by removing his face cover. And talk without a filter. From his next album – which closes an ambitious trilogy on black history -, racism and… the controversial artist Marilyn Manson.
The Quebec public got to know Dominique Fils-Aimé in 2015. She was a competitor on the show The voice (VAT).
Singer Pierre Lapointe, who welcomed her to his team, remembers being instantly seduced during her blind audition. “She embodied everything a classical voice should embody. At the same time, she was totally unique. It’s very, very rare to have both this vocal quality and such a strong personality. And no matter how hard we try not to judge by the physical, when I saw her, her great beauty hit me right in the face. “
She who had no musical training made her way to the semi-final of the television contest, where she bowed to a certain Matt Holubowski.
From this experience, the artist says he acquired the discipline necessary to make music a profession. “It wasn’t a competition, for me, but a school,” she says.
In 2018, she put the lesson to good use and recorded Nameless. A thousand leagues from a formatted product without personality, this first blues album stripped, in part a capella, has earned rave reviews. The artist announces that she is here to stay.
Nameless will be the beginning of a work that will be spread over three albums. The common thread: the struggle of African Americans towards equality.
Photo: Andréanne Gauthier
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Black songs, songs of hope
For the daughter of Haitian immigrants, this historic musical journey is as painful as it is essential. “100 years ago, I could not have been on a stage to sing these songs, could not vote, could not live my life as I live it today”, underlines it. Lover of painting, she designed each part of her trilogy around a color and a style specific to the time evoked. So, Nameless is blue like the sadness of slave songs.
On the contrary, the jazzy Stay Tuned! is red with passion and revolt. Released in 2019, the album won her numerous awards and recognitions – Félix, Juno, Révélation Radio-Canada – and she was a finalist for the prestigious Polaris, which celebrates the best of Canadian music.
The trilogy is due to conclude with the release, on February 12, of The Sunny Three Little Words, bearer of hope, and more soulful. “I wanted warmth,” she illustrates. Yellow, orange. ” After the suffering and the boiling expressed in the first two opus, Three Little Words is meant “a moment to breathe together, heal together, dance together”. As for the title, it suggests the three little words of a declaration of love. But not only. “It’s“ I Love You ”above all, but it’s also the“ I Believe You ”of denunciations [d’inconduites et d’agressions sexuelles]. There are many three word formulas that can be used to express love. “
Like Black Lives Matter? “Also”, agrees the one who demonstrated following the death of African-American George Floyd at the hands of white police in the spring of 2020. “Black Lives Matter is a way of saying that we want everything the world feels loved, valued, respected, and that every person’s life matters, whether it is the lives of visible minorities, Aboriginal people, or those with mental or physical disabilities. “
Without anger in her voice, even with gentleness, the artist confirms the obvious: yes, of course, she has experienced racism. That she was born in Montreal to a mother doctor doesn’t change that.
“To have someone refuse an apartment on the pretext that they had already rented to a black man and that it had gone badly, or to make me say: ‘You’re beautiful for a black woman'”, lists – she. And then there is this question, which keeps coming back: “Where are you from?” Often asked without malice, but wearing out in the long run. “It sounds harmless, but it’s part of the micro-aggression. It’s as if I wasn’t legitimate to be from Quebec. Where is it first? Because Haiti, I have been there twice in my life, I have no ties there. “
Photo: Andréanne Gauthier
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Empathy above all
No trace of frustration in Dominique’s words. The thirty-something has chosen her camp: that of empathy. “I believe in us,” she says. I sincerely believe that if a lot of people cultivate hatred, it is because it is all they know. They will spit out their pain and suffering in the face of others. The only way to respond, to move on, is by sending them love. “
What Dominique Fils-Aimé does with his voice, his words, his airs. “Music is the most underestimated, the most peaceful, non-violent tool of revolution that one can find. Little, Dominique was unaware that the color of her skin could make a difference in the eyes of others. At the Collège Stanislas, a private French establishment in Outremont, where she did her entire school career, “everyone seemed to come from elsewhere, and at the same time from here”. Her friend Marc Tristan, who has known her since kindergarten, describes a polite, eloquent girl who hums constantly. “Children, we thought of the Backstreet Boys. And she was telling us about Ella Fitzgerald! “
Dominique Fils-Aimé ensures that she still succumbed to the pop icons of her time, Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera and company. But his musical interests have always been eclectic. The proof ? As a teenager, she reveled in opera – her older sister studied lyric singing – while devoting boundless admiration to metal star Marilyn Manson, whose macabre words and aesthetics caused a scandal over the years. 1990.
“We followed his tours for years, Marc and me. Whether in Montreal, Ottawa or Quebec, we were there, front row. I put on my black lipstick, and we memorized his words to make sure he saw us sing. “
Imagining Dominique as a provocative rockstar’s groupie may seem incongruous. But she continues: “He is an extremely intelligent being. He is also a figure of rebellion; there is a whole reflection about him, he does not do things at random. “
On stage, the artist is hardly inspired by his childhood idol. Rather, it sets up an atmosphere close to meditation. Spectators are even asked not to applaud between plays. One way to encourage total listening… but also, through the band, to make us think about our automatisms. “Applauding is a social convention that we never question,” she points out. Can we think about other things that we do purely by reflex? “Finally, the rebellious spirit may not be so far …
As a young adult, the student struggles to choose a career. In his mind, the arts are a hobby, not a job. After classes in fashion, photography and public relations, she believes she has found her vocation in helping relationships. She will be a psychologist. She was still in college when she was recruited by an agency providing employee support. A job that fascinates her (“We underestimate the importance of mental health,” she says), but which exposes her to human distress. Not smoothly. “People would tell me their stories and I would burst into tears,” she recalls. I was unable to detach myself. She sinks in turn: professional exhaustion. The work stoppage will last for one year. A year during which she began to music. Instinctively, with an iPhone and a computer. The effect is therapeutic. “It was my form of meditation, and it did me a lot of good. “
To find one’s way
Eager for creation, she is interested in artists of all stripes that she meets in the Mile-End, the neighborhood she lives in Montreal. Naturally, she opens the door of her apartment to them. Little by little, the place becomes a sort of informal cultural haunt. “There must have been eight people on average who sang, painted, wrote or watched TV,” his friend Marc Tristan remembers with amusement.
“Encouraging people to create nourished me,” explains Dominique. And them, it gave them a place to socialize. It is in the center of this joyous mess that she is rebuilding herself. And that she ends up assuming the artist that she is. Shortly after, without telling anyone, she will attend the auditions of The voice, a first time without success, then a second. A question of putting oneself to the test. The rest is known: a crescendo course that attracts attention everywhere.
Her agent, Kevin Annocque, makes no secret about the ambitions he has for her. “Dominique will not only stand out in Quebec or Canada,” he says. She has an international career ahead of her. ” Driven by the success of the album Stay Tuned !, the singer was also to travel through Europe to present around thirty shows in 2020. Pandemic obliges, Europe will wait. But to lament his fate? It does not seem to be in the nature of Dominique Fils-Aimé, who rather feels sorry for his musicians. “Shows are their main source of income, and many love to travel. I repeat to them that it is only a postponement. We are going through a difficult moment, but it will be to experience an explosion of joy in a short time. It will be the Roaring Twenties, as after all wars! People will want to consume art more than ever. And we’ll be there! “
The two hours of our meeting are up. The latte, which she hardly touched, has been cold for a long time. All that remains is to ask Dominique Fils-Aimé what will come next Three Little Words, which will complete its trilogy. “As of this winter, I am going to put myself in meditation to think about what would do me good and would be useful for the world in which we live. He is very interested in getting closer to young people, perhaps through writing workshops. “I need to have a direct interaction with this incredible new generation, who know more than us. ” And the music ? “I’m never going to stop! »She exclaims. Before adding, thoughtful: “In fact, I wonder if I would not launch another trilogy …”
Three Little Words will be released on February 12, 2021. A tour will follow; For more details, consult domiofficial.com.
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