I play Quebecois sixties music here in Amsterdam as well as on Oh la la and I’ve had people ask me, “hey, who is this?” I realise that this music can come off as obscure. There are political and economical reasons for this, but the quick and dirty answer is music from Quebec in French was not known much outside of Quebec for a long time.

Some Quebecois groups worth checking out: César et ses romains (photo), Les Classels, Donald Lautrec, Tony Roman, Pierre Lalonde, Les Hou-lops, Les Lutins and many more. Have a good look around Rétro Jeunesse (In French), a great site with pictures and recording info.

As of late I’ve added music by more recent artists either covering old favourites or being very Oh la la: Coralie Clément, Pascal Parisot, Keren Ann and Fabienne Delsol.

When I was a university student in Québec my friends and I would sometimes buy as much beer as we could afford then go down to an old dusty warehouse that sold all kinds of old records. It was an enormous place where you could buy 12 singles for a Canadian dollar (euro 0.60). I was usually in charge of finding the disco, while my best friend would pick out the weirdest French-language stuff possible. I am still the proud owner of sappy French synth-pop, French disco, and other marvels that I still play now and then.