Mon Pays

"Mon pays" ("My Country", or "My Homeland", in English) is a song composed by Quebec singer-songwriter Gilles Vigneault in 1964.[1]

For other uses, see Mon Pays (disambiguation).

The song was written for the NFB film The Snow Has Melted on the Manicouagan (La Neige a fondu sur la Manicouagan), directed by Arthur Lamothe.[1] The song consists of six stanzas of lyrics about winds, cold, snow, and ice, of the solitude of wide open spaces and of the ideal of brotherhood.[2][3] Its theme, "'Mon pays ce n'est pas un pays, c'est l'hiver", is well-known throughout the province.[4] As well as expressing the natural beauty and praising the special characteristics of the composer's Quebec homeland, the song is seen by many people as declaring the free spirit of the province;[5][6] Vigneault has denied that this was ever his intention; however, he has been firm that "mon pays" refers to Quebec and should not be associated with Canada as a whole.[7]

Vigneault won the Prix Félix-Leclerc at the 1965 Festival du disque de Montréal for the song.[8] Later that same year, Monique Leyrac performed it at the International Song Festival in Sopot, Poland, taking first prize with it.[9]

In 1977, the melody from "Mon Pays" was reworked into the disco song "From New York to L.A." recorded by Patsy Gallant. This song with English lyrics by Gene Williams unrelated to the original French, was an international hit for Gallant[10] - Canada/ #6 Pop, #1 Adult Contemporary,[11]/ the UK/ #6, Ireland/ #5, Australia/ #10, the Netherlands/ #15, Norway/ #7, South Africa/ #5, Sweden/ #17, - and in 1995 reached #5 in Austria via a remake credited to N.Y.L.A. featuring Stephanie McKay.

References
  1. Suzanne Thomas, Stephen C. Willis and Hélène Plouffe, "Mon Pays". The Canadian Encyclopedia, November 20, 2011.
  2. William J. Berg (2012). Literature and Painting in Quebec: From Imagery to Identity. University of Toronto Press. p. 270. ISBN 978-1-4426-4398-7.
  3. "Gilles Vigneault's powerful dream of un pays". Montreal Gazette, June 23, 2018, Bernard Perusse
  4. Elizabeth Knowles (23 August 2007). Oxford Dictionary of Modern Quotations. OUP Oxford. p. 325. ISBN 978-0-19-920895-1.
  5. Fabien Lecoeuvre (15 November 2017). 1001 histoires secrètes de chansons. Editions du Rocher. p. 644. ISBN 978-2-268-09848-7.
  6. Mark Ellingham; Orla Duane; James McConnachie, eds. (1999). World Music: Latin & North America, Caribbean, India, Asia and Pacific. Rough Guides. p. 353. ISBN 978-1-85828-636-5.
  7. "No harmony here: the controversy over an iconic Quebec song". John Furlong, The Globe and Mail, February 4, 2011
  8. Versailles, Claire. "Mon Pays". The Canadian Encyclopedia. Archived from the original on May 5, 2006.
  9. John Robert Colombo (1978). The Poets of Canada. Hurtig Publishers. p. 183. ISBN 978-0-88830-150-5.
  10. Brencan Kelly, "Patsy Gallant looks back at 'road map of my life' in documentary". Montreal Gazette, December 2, 2016
  11. "Item Display - RPM - Library and Archives Canada". Collectionscanada.gc.ca. 1976-10-30. Retrieved 2019-03-26.
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