Tanya Tagaq wows crowd at Red Bull Music Academy

A shoeless Tanya Tagaq appeared from backstage and the crowd paused in anticipation as she approached the microphone. She greeted audience members in a high-pitched, soft voice, then turned and asked the band, “Are you ready?” The second the rhythm hit, the soft voice transformed into guttural shrieks that raised the hairs on your neck.

Tagaq was in Montreal September 28, performing for a Red Bull Music Academy Event at La Tulipe in collaboration with the Toronto punk band Fucked Up.

“I was so pleasantly surprised with how sensitive and vulnerable and open it was,” said Tagaq in an interview on Q, CBC Radio’s arts magazine show. “It was wonderful to be able to collaborate with these guys.”  

Collaboration is a habit for Tagaq. She was recently featured heavily on A Tribe Called Red’s new album We Are The Halluci Nation, and in the past has performed with Iceland’s Björk and Canadian rapper Shad. Strangely though, she’s one of the only Inuit throat singers to perform solo.

Inuit throat singing developed as a game in which two people, usually women, would sing into each other’s mouth until one would stop from exhaustion. Tagaq performs the feat solo, I assume, because she never has to stop.

From the moment she sang her first note, you quickly realized that listening to the 2014 Polaris Music Prize winner’s albums and seeing her perform live are two completely different experiences. Tagaq transforms herself and the stage. At points she’s an animal, then a crying child, sometimes it feels her voice comes directly from a spirit.

It’s not easy listening music – it’s powerful storytelling that is sometimes uncomfortable. The crowd thinned slightly during her performance. Some concert-goers were visibly shaken by Tagaq’s power and left early. “It’s as if she’s multiple people when she’s performing. Like she’s channels something,” said fan Vera Szissis.   

 

Tagaq touches on motifs of abuse, colonialism and sexuality. Throughout her show, audience members were noticeably moved. Some were brought to tears. And all of this was achieved without uttering a word of English. “I didn’t know what she was saying, but I felt it,” said Zissis.

The entire performance seemed improvised, as if the singer and musicians were allowing the music to take them where it wanted. Discovery on stage and in life is something Tagaq has touched on in different interviews.

“People are constantly trying to categorize and organize thought and genre, when really there’s so many bridges to be walked upon that have no meaning,” said Tagaq. “If you want to discover new things you can’t over-categorize.”

The concert ended as innocently and quickly as it started. The music faded, a flushed Tagaq thanked the crowd in the same high-pitched voice and left the stage. It felt like the audience was left in a state of shock. As I exited the venue energized and awestruck, the only thought I could form in my head was – wow!