ÇA CLAQUE! IN CHILE
Llama Tales
Folklorama Member recounts time at the Viña del Mar International Song Festival
Vol. 13, Issue 2 April/May/June 2012
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Ça Claque! on stage at the Viña del Mar International Song Festival.
hen we first applied to the Viña del Mar International Song Festival in Chile, we knew nothing about it. We applied blindly without knowing the immensity of the production that was awaiting us. The thought of a small French-Canadian folk group being accepted in this festival was slim, but we applied our newly recorded song “Automne” because we had nothing to lose.
Naturally, hearing about our acceptance blew us away. Five airports later, we arrived at the beautiful city Viña del Mar, and in the hands of the staff at the Chilevisión television network and the festival. No more worries for us! Since we were one of the only groups that didn’t speak fluent Spanish, meeting our competition and speaking to the media was our challenge. Fortunately, we had Folklorama’s Christian Hidalgo-Mazzei, a native of Chile, with us to help with translation. We’ve never experienced so much press and attention, but through it we created new friendships and important contacts. The first week was rehearsals with the hired dancers, and figuring out our placement on stage and how it looked to the audience. These lasted about 15 minutes each and then we had the rest of the day off. A la playa! Our downtime was spent exploring the city and its multiple beaches, sampling the local food and beers, and taking in our surroundings. A few sound checks later, we were ready to perform. After catching a glimpse of the audience and television cameras, we didn’t feel as nervous as we thought we would. Our confidence came from the dozens of technicians looking after us, making sure our equipment was functioning glitch-free. The previous group finished their performance, and we had 10 seconds to run across the massive stage and assemble our set. Our performances went off without a hitch, and we weren’t bothered by having 15,000 spectators plus millions of television viewers watching us: we were more focused on hitting the right notes and not tripping on stage. After performing twice and being scored by the nine celebrity judges, it was announced who would move on to the next round. Unfortunately, we didn’t make the top three, so our run to the “Gaviota de Plata” (Silver Seagull) trophy was over. But winning was not a priority for us. We were distracted by the exposure we were getting and the people we were meeting. The best part about it was that we never heard a negative comment on our song or performance. Our biggest fans might have been the technicians, since we were an easy group to work with, but we also felt the viewers loved it after reading the comments on our videos and on Twitter. This festival encouraged us to keep writing and improving our performance, with a new understanding of high-production events. We will always remember this experience. Thank you to everyone for promoting Ça Claque! in Chile and in Winnipeg. Thank you! -Members of Ça Claque! Ça Claque! on the red carpet.