A well-known former Greater Sudbury Franco-Ontarian musician, Dayv Poulin, has been seeing some success with his latest single, “Simple de même.”
Released in November, the French-language song has hit No. 1 at almost a dozen radio stations and networks across Canada in recent weeks. In some cases, he’s maintained the No. 1 position several weeks in a row.
The song has been played all over Canada, and a lot in Quebec, which Poulin said is a tough market for Franco-Ontarians.
You can listen to “Simple de même” below:
Poulin, who has been living in North Bay for the last couple of years, said the attention his single has received is a “beautiful surprise,” as he didn’t expect it to see this kind of success.
He said he gets great feedback when he’s playing live, but “when you have radio success, and especially with big stations who hear tons of music every day, it does validate that what we're doing is good and good enough to be, you know, chosen.
“And the fact that they keep playing it and it keeps climbing the charts and stays there for a long time shows that it resonates with people.”
“Simple de même” roughly translates to “Simple as that,” but Poulin said it’s really all about choosing love.
“Sometimes life can throw you all these challenges,” he said. “It's often just the idea just to love and find the positive. The idea of practicing gratitude and all of that, that's all kind of wrapped into that. So it is a song about that. It's a very simple message.”
He said the track has a blended style of folk, pop and even some country mixed in.
Poulin is a veteran in the Northern Ontario music scene. He toured Canada as part of Konflit Dramatik as a teenager, and is the frontman of ToeJam Tequila, a Sudbury-based cover band that’s been playing together for more than 20 years.
He is also a member of Bilinguish Boys (made up of three popular Franco-Ontarian singer-songwriter/entertainers - a “Franco-Ontarian, boy band supergroup.”
He has also had a successful career as a French-language recording artist under the names Dayv Poulin and Le Paysagiste.
The musician also performs with partner Loni Konkal in the English-language duo cAbiners.
Poulin said “Simple de même” will be part of an album he’s hoping to release later this year. “Most of it is written and it'll be recorded in the next few months,” he said.
He said he appreciates all of the support he’s been receiving from the community, even those who have shared the music video.
“It just gives us so much more power and so much wind in our sails, you know, so we're really, really grateful for that,” Poulin said.
You can view more of Poulin’s work here.
Heidi Ulrichsen is Sudbury.com’s associate content editor. She also covers education and the arts scene.
