Haitian-Canadian artist Wesli is set to take the stage at the Shenkman Arts Centre in Ottawa. Here’s what you can expect.
If you’ve never heard of Wesli, born Wesley Louissaint in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, you’ll be thankful that you have now. The Montreal-based songwriter, guitarist and producer has fusing traditional Haitian music with with roots, Afrobeat, and hip-hop, winning a number of awards along the way.
Back in 2009-2010, he was crowned the Revelation Radio-Canada. Since then he has gone on to win the Babel Med Music Prize (2010), SOCAN’s Hagood Hardy Award (2016), an award from the Académie Charles CROS (2019), a JUNO Award for World Music Album of the Year (2019), a Félix for Album of the Year in World Music (2019), and a CFMA for World Solo Artist of the Year (2020). He has toured across North America, Haiti, Colombia, Brazil, and Europe, as well as under the GlobalFest banner with the Caribbean All Stars. He has also performed at WOMEX, Mundial Montréal and Cape Verde’s Atlantic Music Expo.
In 2022, he released his latest album Tradisyon, with its big single “Le Soleil Descend” featuring Paul Cargnello which has over 530K streams on Spotify to date. This was a follow up to his 2018 album release Rapadou Kréyol and his two 2015 album releases Immigrand and his more traditional Ayiti Étoile Nouvelle.
Now on March 16th, Wesli will be bringing his decade plus catalogue of traditional Haitian and Caribbean songs to the Shenkman Arts Centre stage in Ottawa. The show is supported by Ontario Presents World Music Program.
For a sneap peak at what you can expect, here’s a look at his performance at Festival Haiti.
His shows feature amazing instrumentation, from guitars and horns, to great harmonies and rhythms that are going make you want to get out of your seat and move.
For tickets and information about Wesli at the Shenkman Arts Centre visit shenkmanartscentre.ca.
FOUR MUST-SEE SHOWS COMING SOON TO OTTAWA’S MERIDIAN THEATRES @ CENTREPOINTE
FOUR MUST-SEE SHOWS COMING SOON TO OTTAWA’S MERIDIAN THEATRES @ CENTREPOINTE