More than 80 artists will take part in Stronger Together, Tous Ensemble on Sunday, but only Marie-Mai and Charlotte Cardin will sing in French.

Canada’s star-studded COVID-19 event, set to take place Sunday, has a bilingual name but will feature very little francophone content.

On Thursday, organizers of Stronger Together, Tous Ensemble unveiled over 50 more artists and personalities who will take part from their homes in the show that will be aired on 44 TV networks Sunday night, including CBC, CTV, Global and CityTV. Earlier in the week, the show announced the lineup would include Céline Dion, Michael Bublé, Bryan Adams, Shania Twain, Sarah McLachlan, Howie Mandel, Jann Arden, Rick Mercer and Russell Peters.

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Artists added Thursday include Justin Bieber, Mike Myers, Ryan Reynolds, Avril Lavigne, Geddy Lee, Robbie Robertson, Charlotte Cardin, Burton Cummings, and the Cirque du Soleil.

Of the more than 80 people confirmed to participate, there are only a handful from Quebec, including Dion, Cardin, Marie-Mai, Georges St-Pierre, Sam Roberts, and Cirque du Soleil. Of those Quebecers, it looks like the only two who will be singing in French are Cardin and Marie-Mai.

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TVA has its own COVID-19 concert show coming, which will be broadcast on Mother’s Day, May 10. It is being produced in collaboration with the Quebec government. The title of the franco show is Une chance qu’on s’a, a title inspired by a Jean-Pierre Ferland song. No details have yet been announced regarding who will appear on the TVA show.

The lack of francophone talent on the Canadian special has some here in Quebec wondering why the province’s vibrant music scene isn’t better represented.

Photo by Dave Sidaway / jpg

Marc Cassivi in La Presse opined that “once again, Quebec francophone music plays a secondary role in a pan-Canadian event.”

The franco content is less secondary and more like almost non-existent. There are more than 80 people taking part and of that total, two will sing in the language of Michel Tremblay.

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Organizers declined to be interviewed for the article, so it’s not clear if they tried to secure more francophone artists and were turned down or if the intent was always to focus almost entirely on anglophone talent. The lack of franco participation is similar to the situation every year with the Juno Awards and underlines the divide that still exists between the two music scenes.

Bell Media, CBC and producer Insight Productions did sent a written statement by email:

“ Originally conceived to be broadcast by Canada’s four largest English networks, the special was offered to all broadcasters, and we were delighted that several French specialty channels and V decided to air a version with French translation. With an attempt to be representative of Canada as a whole, we reached out to many artists across the country as the show came together and we’re glad that artists like Marie-Mai and Charlotte Cardin have come on board to sing in French. Our main objective is to support front-line workers, while raising funds for food banks in every province and territory.”

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The special will air on several French-language networks with French subtitles, including ARTV, SériesPlus, V, and VRAK, but it won’t be on the two biggest franco networks, ICI Radio-Canada and TVA.

A spokesman for Radio-Canada said via email that Radio-Canada decided to air Stronger Together, Tous Ensemble on its arts channel ARTV because the show is mostly in English. The spokesman noted that in contrast to the main Radio-Canada network, ARTV sometimes broadcasts concerts entirely in English.

Radio-Canada will however be airing a special edition of the France Beaudoin-hosted music show En direct de l’univers, which will be broadcast at some point on Mother’s Day weekend. That show will feature artists performing songs dedicated to mothers in confinement, living far away from their loved ones.

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The 90-minute Stronger Together, Tous Ensemble show will air commercial-free at 6:30 p.m. on Sunday It will include a virtual ensemble performance of a classic song that will be sung by more than two dozen Canadian artists and the song, to be produced by Jon Levine, will be released immediately following the broadcast on all major streaming platforms. The show will raise funds for Food Banks Canada.