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Universal says ‘désolé’ over French-free Canada tribute album
By Chris Cooke | Published on Thursday 20 July 2017
Universal Music Canada has conceded that when putting out a six disc compilation to celebrate the country’s 150th anniversary, it probably should have put at least a couple of tracks on there that are sung in French.
The lack of French words on the compilation was noted on its release, not least in the Canadian province of Quebec where the vast majority of people consider French to be their first language. Which isn’t to say there weren’t artists harking from Quebec on the record, there were, they were just singing in English.
Acknowledging the critics of its French-free ‘Canada 150: A Celebration Of Music’ release, the mega-major took to the tweets yesterday to declare: “Universal Music Canada acknowledges our errors of omission in the creation of the Canada 150 set”.
It went on: “While no compilation should claim to be comprehensive, the absence of French-language repertoire is an incomprehensible oversight, which is not reflective of our values, and we will take action to remedy the offence. Our company has true admiration for Francophone arts and culture and we remain committed to its continued support and development”.
So there you go. And yes, they did also tweet the apology in French.
