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Long before your feed told you what to listen to, Quebec culture had a different tastemaker: MusiquePlus.
Remember the glass studio at Ste-Catherine and Bleury in Montreal? The crowds of fans outside, the VJs on your cable screen and the videos that dictated exactly what went into your CD player?
Well, nostalgia alert. The once-popular TV channel is relaunching as a new kind of influencer. TikTok has announced its teaming up with the brand to bring it back, exclusively on the app.
“New generation, same DNA,” MusiquePlus wrote in French in it’s first video announcing the news.
It’s a similar move to its sister channel, MuchMusic, which made TikTok a home in 2021 and has since garnered more than five million followers on the app.
According to a press release, the channel’s vertical revival “will include a new generation of VJs and creators, with a focus on highlighting music, culture and entertainment in an experience that amplifies Quebec’s creative voices.”
It’s aiming to do what it once did — spotlight the French-speaking music scene, this time for a new generation of listeners.
The French-language music channel originally launched in 1986 and became a launching pad for local emerging artists.
Quebec stars like Véronique Cloutier, Geneviève Borne, Anne-Marie Withenshaw, Claude Rajotte and Sonia Benezra all broke through on the channel.
It also broadcast the launch of Celine Dion’s first English language album Unison in 1990.
The channel was scrapped in 2019 and replaced with the another called Elle Fictions.
“MusiquePlus is part of our collective memory, and this project was the perfect opportunity to revive it and give a powerful voice to local talent and culture,” Maxime Rémillard, president of Remstar Media, one of the companies behind the relaunch, said in the release.
TikTok’s growing music influence
The choice of TikTok as the site of the relaunch comes as the app enjoys massive influence in the music industry. Canadian artists like Tate McRae, bbno$ and the Beaches all had major breakthroughs on the app.
It’s become a hotspot for artists to tease and promote their music. McRae’s You Broke Me First came out in April 2020, went viral on TikTok and was certified platinum that year. The Beaches’ hit Blame Brett went viral in 2023, garnering millions of views.
Though some artists, have gone on to complain about the industry’s reliance on the app. Pop star Halsey posted a since-deleted 2022 video alleging their label wouldn’t release a new song without an accompanying TikTok campaign to make it go viral.
“Everything is marketing. And they are doing this to every artist these days,” Halsey wrote at the time.
Content for MusiquePlus’s revival is being produced through Quebec-based production company Attraction, Motion Entertainment (a division of WPP Media) and Remstar.
The page launches June 11.
