One thing promised, one due: Roxane Bruneau has just published this third album, the release of which she announced during her shows at the Videotron Center and the Bell Center last April. It’s called Submerged and it’s paradoxical, because the popular singer feels more confident than ever when she takes the stage at the MTelus this Tuesday evening.
“I wanted to know nothing about a 9 to 5 / I wanted fame, to rock the stages / Let my name be on everyone’s lips,” proclaimed Roxane Bruneau on J’pas stressée, a song from her first album released in 2017. She succeeded: in just six short years, she went from anonymity to the biggest stages in Quebec, sold more than 100,000 records at a time when they were no longer sold and accumulated tens of millions of listening on streaming platforms.
His secret weapon? Its authenticity. Roxane Bruneau sings true. Except for a half-truth: stressed, she was. A lot.
The singer talks about it in the past tense because she has taken charge of herself and is doing better. She learned to keep her head above water, as she says on Submerged, and to breathe better, we understand. “I’m taking better care of my mental and physical health. I started taking medication, she explains, while adding that she is not saying that to promote anxiolytics. And I realized that I was right to trust myself. »
Submerged (without “e” at the end so that everyone can feel involved, she explains) resembles Roxane Bruneau’s previous records: she exposes her flaws in this mixture of urgency and fragility which has become her trademark, but also testifies to a new force. Now she is able to claim her successes with her head held high and in words full of pride.
With a touch of defiance, too, in the title track, where the singer says that it is now she who, from the top of the charts, looks down on those who only yesterday looked down on her. “The word that comes to mind when I think of this song is assumed,” she muses, recalling that her first two records (Dysphoria, Accrophobia) evoked fears.
Assumé is not, however, a synonym for infallible, we see when listening to his new songs, some of which evoke a very common fear, that of losing a loved one. “I talk about my own experience and I think people recognize themselves,” she suggests, when the strong bond between her and her audience is highlighted.
Her fighting side shines through in pieces where she evokes movement
Submerged also reconnects with the particular style of Roxane Bruneau, that is to say pop inflated with arrangements that are reminiscent of rock calibrated for arenas and clearly inspired by rap. You can hear it in the way she expresses herself, in the rhythm of her singing and in the importance that words have for her. “It’s all very instinctive,” she begins.
“It’s good that you heard rap sounds,” she adds quickly, “because I listen to a lot, a lot of rap. I don’t do pure rap, because I think I wouldn’t be good, so I do it my way. I arrive with a song and I work on it with my director, Mathieu Brisset. We leave, we play the song together. »
Roxane Bruneau feels in her place, both in her head and in her career. “I’m proud of the artist I’m becoming and I’m really proud of the human I’m becoming,” she admits. It’s stupid to say, but I’m glad I didn’t become a pile of shit! With great popularity, often people end up changing. I’m proud to have remained the same and I’m happy to make a living from my music, happy that people grant me this privilege. »