We asked him if he could explain the revival of chanté nwël. “A very good question,” he replied without hesitation! He also talks to us about the frustration associated with these years of health crisis, which greatly deprives Martinicans of one of their favorite festivals.

The evolution of Christmas carols in Martinique ?

The history speaks for itself. For me, the renewal came after the touch of Loulou Boislaville, in the years 95-96, with groups like Mazincoin or Ravine Plate who revitalized the kantik with their first albums. They were already performing, but they marked their era with their catchy tunes, which we still sing today, and the release of albums. These groups put the kantik in a place not as a show… but as popular music. In any case, a music appreciated by everyone. The groups continued to have success and tour with the first stages. I’m talking about it even though I wasn’t there at the time, my studies in mainland France required me to be away, but I obviously bought the albums, and the idea when we came back for the holidays in December was to try to see their performances.

Things continued for me in a traditional way until 2010, even though we had formed SoS Kantik a year earlier and had already done an adaptation of “Satan Crève” on a zouk piece, just among us.

From my point of view, the turning point towards modernity was in 2010 with our adaptation of “Alors on danse” by Stromae. As an anecdote, this idea that I already had when I was part of the group Yanm Sasa and proposed it to them, was rejected! Perhaps because it was too modern, or a little disturbing… Eleven years later, it might seem strange, but when SoS Kantik accepted the adaptation and we started playing it, it had the success that we know, but it was also criticized: “This is no longer tradition!”, “What kind of group allows itself to change the carols!”. To put it in syntax, we have absolutely not changed the carols, not a word has changed, only the music. Musical adaptations have always existed [Editor’s note: in the late 2000s, the group An Rita already adapted the carol to Nicoletta’s “Mamy Blue”].

SoS Kantik is not chaos, it’s a kind of musical vision. Maybe we play a little fast on the bpm [beats per minute], but we’re not the only ones who have accelerated the pace. In fact, since Mazincoin or Ravine Plate, the beats of the pieces, the speed, had already accelerated. We had left the era of Loulou Boislaville.

This renewal has happened over the years and through adaptations, with success and a stronger demand from the public. We have made several adaptations according to the musical trends of the past year, for example La Fouine in 2011 or more recently “Jaloux” by Dadju in 2019, and Jerusalema in 2020. The concept appealed to the younger generation (we were still young at the time…). Without any pretension, I still think that we managed to bring a whole section of the population, still in love with its tradition, towards modernity. And we have also inspired others, as we are no longer the only group making adaptations around the hits of the year. The idea of adapting the canticle has now become almost normal. Every year, we know very well that SoS Kantik will release their adaptations, and bets are made on which song will be adapted. So yes, SoS Kantik has contributed to a second modernization of the canticle, without overshadowing the traditional canticle. Everyone can find something they like. And it would be completely wrong to associate traditional with “old” and modern with young! Finally, I dare to believe that the story of the chanté nwël does not end here… The door to a third generation is open.

Le cantique et la Covid

The Cantique and Covid It has now been two Christmases under special sanitary conditions, two seasons during which we have not been able to fully enjoy the cantique. And for musicians, mind you, we are only amateurs but big fans of the Christmas period, it’s very burdensome. No performances, no opportunity to play and sing. And the frustration of the public is no less. Last year we found a video streaming solution to share with them. It was the Spektak platform, a digital platform dedicated to live performances based in Guadeloupe, that submitted the project to us. We recorded 2 concerts of 50 minutes each at the Grand Carbet in Parc Aimé Césaire. The idea was to make these concerts available during the Christmas period, at least during the month of December. This avant-garde operation worked more or less, as evidenced by other chantés nwël alongside concerts by our local artists on the platform.

And this year, seeing that the end of the year is hardly conducive to chantés nwël, we have decided to make the audio of these live recordings available to the public , on the SoundCloud platform. 19 tracks! enough to animate some family cantiques, some traffic jams. This is our gift to you for 2021, in response to Covid. It’s not a vaccine, but the simple continuation of the spirit of sharing at Christmas.

An anecdote ?

For more than a decade now, I have been spending the Christmas period with my friends from SoS Kantik, years of sharing moments during the last two months of the year with at least one performance per week. And yet, not once have we “done Christmas” together. We had played so much for others, but never took the time to get together for ourselves at Christmas…

Even though Christmas is about family, SoS Kantik is another one. It was finally made up for last year, thanks to the health crisis. We spent December 25th together, and the meeting is already scheduled for this year !

Christmas in 5 words ?

Sharing, Family, Music (carols), Joy, and Gifts because Christmas is still the holiday for children.

A Christmas memory…

Without being philosophical, I would say that my best memory is having better ones every year! Each passing year enriches our memories. With over 10 years of SoS Kantik and 10 years of performances that have always gone well, even with sometimes over 2,000 to 3,000 people, that’s the spirit of Christmas. Knowing that every year, the spirit of Christmas manages to shine.

And within SoS Kantik, it’s during the first performance of the season, finding our automatisms and fervor as if we had not parted ways since December 23rd of the previous year.

Find SoS Kantik on social media

Sos Kantik / @sos_kantik

Interview by Aurélie FC

Photos: courtesy of SoS Kantik.