As her pop covers album ‘Inuktitut’ sails to success, Elisapie finds a renewed voice

TORONTO – Elisapie can’t quite put her finger on it but something within her has recently changed.
The thought crosses the soft-spoken musician’s mind as she ponders her sudden flurry of accomplishments.
Several months ago, she pocketed her first solo Juno award for “Inuktitut,” a covers album of classics by Queen, Leonard Cohen, Metallica and others translated and performed in her native tongue. Earlier this summer, she was featured on a postage stamp as one of three women honoured in Canada Post’s Indigenous Leaders series.
Such feats once seemed unreachable for the singer-songwriter from the tiny Nunavik village of Salluit, Que. Now they’re her fuel.
“There is a force that I’ve never taken, but I am flirting with – a force in me,” she explains while leaning into the table during a conversation over lunch at a Toronto cafe.
“It seems to be talking to people now.”
She sensed it during the Juno Awards in March when she took the Halifax stage wearing a dramatic gown of free-flowing fabric to perform her acoustic rendition of Blondie’s “Heart of Glass,” called “Uummati Attanarsimat.” Years of work on “Inuktitut” finally coalesced on the broadcast with a captivated audience.
“I felt strong,” she remembers. “I felt my feet were on the ground.”
Next month, “Inuktitut” will have another pivotal moment as it competes for best Canadian album at the Polaris Music Prize, shortlisted alongside high-profile releases by Charlotte Cardin, Allison Russell and the Beaches. The winner is announced Sept. 17.
Perhaps it shouldn’t be surprising that the covers album — her fourth studio release — is Elisapie’s most popular. Despite not being sung in English, its concept embraces the ethereal ties between two very different cultures: a traditional Inuk upbringing and pop music.
For the 47-year-old, born Elisapie Isaac, they were often the same. English-language radio hits were the soundtrack of her childhood spent in one of Quebec’s northernmost Inuit communities.
Isaac was adopted at birth and raised by Anglican parents who were distant relatives of her biological mother, Eva Audlaluk, a well-known host at the local branch of a prominent northern radio network.
In those early years, her household was filled with Christian hymns translated into Inuktitut. She remembers how the “love” in those songs left a greater impression on her than the religion itself.
By the time she was a teenager, Isaac landed an internship at her biological mother’s radio station, which stoked a passion for journalistic storytelling.
The worlds of music and journalism swirled together for several years until her uncle guided her in one direction. His successful rock act Sugluk needed a backup singer on short notice and joining them clarified her true passion.
At around 23 years old, she moved to Montreal and immersed herself in the vibrant local culture.
Those years were filled with artistic exploration. She released a National Film Board documentary in 2003 called “If the Weather Permits” which earned acclaim for its portrayal of an Inuk culture in evolution between generations. She also formed the musical duo Taima, which won a Juno in 2005.
When she went solo in 2010 her own stories became the focus. Her third album, “The Ballad of the Runaway Girl,” landed a 2019 Juno nomination and was shortlisted for the Polaris prize that same year.
“Inuktitut” took shape the following year as the COVID-19 pandemic kept her off the road. She was listening to a playlist made by one of her friends when ABBA’s “Super Trouper” came on. The tune instantly sent her memory back to time spent at her uncle’s home and the complicated experiences of a family that was at times dysfunctional.
“It wasn’t just happy, dancing songs,” she said. “There was a lot of sadness too.”
The ties between music and memory seemed like an intriguing concept to explore with “a little covers album” she thought might only circulate among her close friends and family.
But as she began work alongside frequent collaborator Joe Grass, they saw the potential for a greater idea: a full-length covers album that functions as a songbook for her own life.
At first, she worried it might not work.
“A covers album is very tricky,” Isaac remembered thinking.
“How are you guided to the right place when it’s already somebody else’s song?”
Choosing the right songs would be crucial, she realized.
Classics by country singers Hank Williams and Ian Tyson were considered early on, as were famed works by folk legends Neil Young and Bob Dylan. But they did not conjure the deep emotions she felt the album needed.
Other hits instantly provoked memories. Cyndi Lauper’s “Time After Time,” translated as “Taimangalimaaq,” worked as a tribute to her aunt Alasie and cousin Susie, two women influential in her upbringing.
Queen’s “I Want to Break Free,” recorded under the title “Qimatsilunga,” became a tribute to Isaac’s cousin Tayara who took his own life as a teenager.
Fleetwood Mac’s “Dreams,” here called “Sinnatuumait,” recalls her older brother Sailasie, who died in a fire at a local prison.
Returning to some of those painful memories weighed so heavily that they sent her spiralling into guttural cries. Inside the studio, her band would pause the recording to let her recover.
“These are not just my stories, these are my family’s stories,” she said.
“And (the band) listened to me or they were just quiet. It’s like they understood where these songs had to go…. The way Joe arranged it — he didn’t push and sometimes he would push just enough.”
When the album was completed in late 2021, she passed it to a lawyer to secure rights for each classic hit.
“I was nervous,” Isaac recalls. “Because we were told Led Zeppelin doesn’t like when people translate or change their (lyrics).”
As the months went by, clearances for most songs came through, but several remained outstanding, including Zeppelin’s “Going to California,” which she considered the album’s centrepiece.
She canvassed her music industry connections, explaining that her version, called “Californiamut” was something meaningful. It paid homage to her uncle George, a residential school survivor who found refuge in his band Sugluk, which was influenced heavily by Zeppelin.
A chance encounter with Serge Grimaux, a veteran Montreal concert promoter with ties to Robert Plant and Jimmy Page, locked in the approvals she needed. He sent an email, as she described it, and within a surprisingly short amount of time, they had the blessing to use the song.
Since the release of “Inuktitut,” Isaac said her connection with listeners has deepened. Some audience members have shared their own ties to these popular songs with her.
She said it’s opened her eyes to how she might approach her next album with greater vulnerability.
“I needed to do this album to understand my core; to get to the truth; to the bottom where the deep things are,” she said.
“If we want to heal we have to be able to open everything.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Aug. 17, 2024.