Uvattini | Elisapie | VIFF Live | Chan Centre for the Performing Arts | September 28, 2024
The breathtaking beauty of landscape and language fills the theatre as Elisapie swishes her long, large-shouldered, fringed dress and sings covers of popular songs in Inuktitut while footage of Nunavik fills a screen behind her. The multimedia show is moving, deeply personal, and full of powerful songs, “not just songs I stole from white people,” Elisapie laughs.
After opening with “Uummati Attanarsimat” (Heart of Glass by Blondie) and “Taimangalimaaq” (Time After Time by Cyndi Lauper) from her latest album Inuktitut, which was shortlisted for the Polaris Prize, Elisapie shares some of her original songs, including “Call of the Moose” that is paired with footage of beautiful scenery and roaming caribou.
The deeply moving songs are made more poignant as Elisapie tells personal stories and memories that inspired her to write them or to include them on her cover album. For example, “Sinnatuumait” (Dreams by Fleetwood Mac) is an ode to her brother who passed away. She describes a recurring memory of flying over the hills of Salluit with someone behind her and her mother turning off the radio when Fleetwood Mac came on. She later learns that she would ride on her brother’s motorbike as a toddler, and as she sings her haunting rendition reimagined in Inuktitut, we see footage of a brother and sister on a motorbike, peacefully gliding up and down the hills.
“Qaisimalaurittuq” (Pink Floyd’s Wish You Were Here) has another tragic story behind it. Elisapie talks about listening to the song with her cousin who later committed suicide. “Una,” dedicated to her biological mother, is another emotional song that lands heavily in our hearts.
For the more upbeat, rock-inspired songs, Elisapie encourages everyone to get on their feet. The energy from everyone dancing along to “Wolves Don’t Live by the Rules” (a Willie Thrasher cover) and “Arnaq” is palpable.
It’s clear why Elisapie received the Juno award for contemporary Indigenous artist this year. Her music is full of meaning and brimming with emotion, and Uvattini is too. She and her band-mates beautifully harmonize their humming and encourage the crowd to join in. They leave one by one, the crowd still humming after they’re gone. The experience is a collective gift we take with us. After an encore of her Inuktitut cover of Leonard Cohen’s “Hey That’s No Way to Say Goodbye”, she invites audience members onstage for a dance party, the large theatre suddenly feels inviting and intimate.
