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Performing Arts & Entertainment in Canada, Summer, 2000 by Sussan P. Burton

ON MARCH 21, 2000, CANADIANS WITNESSED SOMETHING THAT DOESN'T HAPPEN AT AWARDS SHOWS VERY OFTEN, A MOMENT OF HONEST SURPRISE AND OVER whelming emotion. When Winnipeg singer/songwriter Chantal Kreviazuk won the Juno for Best Artist, the audience hearing her acceptance speech had a glimpse of what makes Kreviazuk so special to her fans: honesty, emotion and surprise

Still not a household name in Canada, Kreviazuk's Juno win is one more step in a journey to become that name, a journey that cannot be called an overnight success, no matter how it seems to the canadian public. Kreviasuk began playing the piano at the age of three, and continued studying on through to University.

In 1994 she was involved in a terrible road accident that almost cost her life, but the healing process helped her find her muse. The result was a collection of songs that landed a record deal with Sony Music Canada and formed Her 1997 debut album Under These Rocks and Stones.

Then the real work started: two years of performing, press and all the problems that come with being away from home and thrust into the spotlight. Under These Rocks and Stones received critical and commercial success in Canada and overseas, opening the door to projects that expanded Kreviazuk's exposure beyond her own work. Propelling her even further into the spotlight was the inclusion of her rendition of "Leaving On a Jet Plane" on the most successful soundtrack of 1998, Armageddon, and an inspired cover of Randy Newman's "Feels Like Home" on TV's Dawson's Creek soundtrack project.

Colour, Moving and Still is her second release and a reflection of the events in Kreviazuk's life between her two albums; a collection of songs that take the listener from elation to introspective tears to happiness. A fuller, more mature album than her first, it is a closer representation of the talent evident in her live shows.

From "Before You", a beautiful, upbeat pop song about the pleasure of being in love, to the inflective "M" and immediate "Until We Die", the album has a unique cohesion of a more mature artist. Kreviazuk admits that she had more control with the second album and was able to be more forceful in getting what she wanted in the recording process. "In recording this album, I truly got the sense of this having been an artist's canvas," she says.

Kreviazuk's live shows are part concert, part comedy routine, part emotional rendering. At first she seems lost behind the grand piano, until she begins to play. The obvious mastery of the keyboard and soaring vocals soon give her command of stage and audience. Her forthright approach, talking directly to audience members, and her from-the-heart retelling of the stories behind the songs, wins over the audience night after night.

The simplicity of the accompaniment and the stripped down interpretation of the songs seem to reach out and individually speak to the audience. This immediate intimacy with the audience explains the devotion of Kreviazuk fans. The intimacy continues after shows, when Kreviazuk spends time meeting fans and signing autographs, deepening the sense of realness that comes through in her music.

Kreviazuk's journey is about to take another step, as she prepares to release Colour, Moving and Still in the United States. With all that has come before, this could be the largest step so far. Canada will watch and listen and talk, making another talented Canadian a household name.

Sussan P. Burton of Toronto knows and loves Canadian music.