Elisapie presents Taimangalimaaq (Time After Time), a Cyndi Lauper cover, and reveals the details of her upcoming album, Inuktitut

After catching Debbie Harry's attention and charming audiences in Quebec and abroad with Ummatti Attanarsimat (Heart of Glass), her cover of the Blondie classic, Elisapie returns today with Taimangalimaaq (Time After Time), an Inuktitut adaptation of Cyndi Lauper's famous hit. The Inuk singer also announces her next album, Inuktitut, to be released via Bonsound on September 15th, 2023.

Like her previous single, Taimangalimaaq (Time After Time) was inspired by a childhood memory of Elisapie, this time associated with her aunt Alasie and her cousin Susie:

If I was able to get through my pre-teen years, it was thanks to my Aunt Alasie, as my mother had neither the knowledge nor the experience to give me a crash course on puberty, fashion or social relationships. In addition to entering a new chapter in my life, we were in the midst of the 80's and modernity was shaking up our traditional methods. My mother’s generation had lived in Igloos, and the cultural changes were too swift.

Despite her struggles, my aunt ensured I felt accepted and exposed me to new and modern things like TV, clothes, dancing, Kraft Dinner and make-up!

Whenever I went to my aunt's house, I was in awe of my older girl cousins. They were all so cool and stylish, and they loved pop music and the crazy makeup of the 80s and early 90s. One of my favourite memories is listening to the radio with them and hearing Cyndi Lauper's Time After Time for the first time. It was like a lightning bolt, and I couldn't separate the song or the artist from my older cousin Susie. For me, the song was all about her search for beauty, connection, love, and rising above pain.

Available for pre-order (vinyl, CD and digital) as of today, Inuktitut is Elisapie's fourth solo album. It's an album of covers that sprouted in the artist's mind in the winter of 2021, when songs – by Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Blondie, Fleetwood Mac, Metallica, Queen, Cyndi Lauper and many other artists who once resounded in the confines of Quebec's Great North – triggered a flood of tears. Many of these songs provided an escape from a context where cultural and community references were being challenged in the face of colonization. Thus, Elisapie began an archaeological mental process: finding songs associated with memories filled with emotions and people from her past. Then followed a second, more prosaic quest: obtaining permission from the original artists to translate and adapt the songs that are now on the album.

With these 10 covers of rock & roll and pop music classics ranging from the 1960’s to the 90’s, translated into Inuktitut, Elisapie reinvigorates the poetry of these songs thanks to the raw sound of this thousand-year-old Inuit language, giving each track a unique and deeply personal quality. Every song is linked to a loved one or an intimate story that has shaped the person Elisapie is today. Through this act of cultural reappropriation, she tells her story, offers these songs as a gift to her community, and makes her language and culture resonate beyond the borders of the Inuit territory.