I’m So Proud Of This Bonjour-Hi Song We Got Coming

I’ve probably listened to this joint over 100 times since the first mix came back to me.

Until Bonjour-Hi is on DSP’s I’m not going to give away the details of who I have featured on the song, but it features four of us. We’re all writing from our unique PRSPCTVS on what it’s like to hear Valerie Plante try and paint “Bonjour” as inclusive and representative of us in Montreal. To drive that home further the song isn’t entirely in English, which I think symbolically matters.

I am writing this article having shown this song to a bunch of people. A mix of strangers in my Uber to people in different demographics in my life. The only group I tend to avoid is musicians. 

I will say producers and engineers offer wonderful feedback that is actionable. 

Bonjour-Hi is the end result of over a year of trying to work on this puzzle in my mind.

How to write something that will connect with people that live in Montreal and simultaneously people who don’t

Wordy heading aside, this is a real conundrum.

Rapping too deeply about what is going on locally will make people who don’t live here ignore you. While we fetishize Compton, no one’s really fetishizing regular old Montreal like that. The DJ folk definitely figured out how to tap into fun Montreal though.

From a branding POV I wanted some idea that in a few words could represent the city. It needed to be something that people who live in Montreal would want to associate themselves with. It also needs to be something that people who don’t live here can quickly understand and connect with.

If we’re taking this idea to the fullest, it also needs to be something no other city can claim.

One day the Bonjour-Hi graffiti struck NDG and I saw the community react. 

In that moment I understood that our weird obsession with language and identity was the root of everything I wanted.

The song is topically relevant even though the politics don’t reflect the people

In April, Valerie Plante made it clear to us that “Bonjour” is better than “Bonjour-Hi”. 

Here is the quote in question:

I don’t think people feel less liked, appreciated or welcome if we don’t add a word in English. For me, I think we have to appropriate the ‘Bonjour,’ because in Montreal, it’s an international city. There are lots of tourists and people who come from around the world. We say ‘Bonjour. 

- Valerie Plante in April of 2024

Well Valerie, I do feel less liked, appreciated and less welcome if you don’t add a word in English. So do my American friends who are confused why you don’t seem to want their money. I went to Tadoussac to spend my tourism money and guess what language they all spoke to me in.

For real, guess.

It was English. There were Bill 101 violations all over and no one cared. They wanted our money. We felt welcome, we wanted to spend our money. The people of Tadoussac understand how this really works. 

Now that our city leadership is trying to make it a point to speak on behalf of us “Historic Anglos” and to speak on behalf of the English folk who come here to spend money, I felt there was a response to be made.

Now, we got a song that is coming in November. 

While homelessness gets worse, Quebec has dedicated 603 Million dollars to boost up the prestige of French

This 603 Million is spent over 5 years so I suppose that’s less bad.

Unless that money will be used to regulate TikTok in Quebec, good luck preventing young Quebecors from learning English. Plenty of young women desire Travis Scott here, what language do you think he, or Chris Brown, speak? Do you think young Quebecors are going to stop memorizing English Hip Hop?

What I find crazy about Quebec’s claim that there is a decline in French, is how bad they are at teaching French. I don’t got no stats, but recently I have talked with 5 separate recent immigrants. All of them are on a waiting list to learn French. 

They are supposed to learn it in 6 months but no one can get French classes in under a year. 

Quebec is spending money on weirdo video campaigns while people who literally want to learn French are on waiting lists.

In their efforts to point out how French is declining, I think they are forgetting that most of us younger (under 40, okay I know I’m stretching that) speak French. To varying degrees. It’s actually pretty rare to find people who speak no French.

Most of us like sex more than we like only speaking English. 

Anyway we got some real problems in Quebec, like homelessness and they are literally wasting money to promote French, the language.

To that I say, Bonjour-Hi.

Live Long and Prosper Everyone