WORLDWIDE SENSATION
One-man-band's cellphone-shot video viewed more than four million times
Singer-songwriter Damien Robitaille was one of Quebec's best-kept secrets until a video of him playing Technotronic's 1989 hit Pump Up the Jam alongside his Akita dog Suki was seen more than four million times on social media. T'cha Dunlevy has details.
Damien Robitaille was one of Quebec's best-kept secrets; now he has gone viral.
“It's like a dam broke,” said the Franco- Ontarian singer-songwriter, reached Thursday at his home in Longueuil.
“If you look at my social media, since the spring I had gained maybe 1,000 followers. Since Monday, I've gained 10,000.”
All courtesy of an ingeniously performed cover song.
As he has done most days since the beginning of the pandemic, Robitaille spent Sunday rehearsing and recording his one-man-band version of an old favourite. But this time, the stars aligned. The tune was Pump Up the Jam, a club classic from 1989 by Technotronic.
The video shows Robitaille pounding out the groove on piano with his left hand, adding double-timed rhythm with a shaker in his right while keeping the beat with both right and left feet — one hitting a kick drum, the other a snare.
As he begins to rap, inviting viewers to “Pump up the jam, pump it up, while your feet are stomping,” and “get the party goin' on the dance floor,” his Akita dog Suki wanders in through the curtain behind him and spends the rest of the one minute, 41-second clip sniffing around, yawning and licking her lips.
The cellphone-shot video has since been viewed more than four million times, following retweets by Canadian rapper Shad, former American basketball star Rex Chapman and actor Elijah Wood.
“It's crazy,” Robitaille said on Thursday afternoon.
Earlier in the day, he had spoken to the BBC and been featured on an American news channel.
“Someone said they had seen it on the Today Show,” he noted. “I'm not sure about that.” Premier François Legault tweeted his congratulations Thursday morning — seemingly not bothered by the fact that the song is in English — along with a link to an article in La Presse.
Robitaille has tweeted in English a bit since Tuesday, to reach out to his many new fans across the border and around the world.
Several of those fans are now digging into his back catalogue of covers — a gold mine of almost 140 songs, including everything from the Beatles' Blackbird to Radiohead's Everything In Its Right Place and Knives Out, Céline Dion's Incognito, the Vengaboys' We Like to Party!, Devo's Whip It, Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody, Bob Marley's Jammin', the White Stripes' Seven Nation Army, Fleetwood Mac's Dreams, Leonard Cohen's Suzanne, Elton John's I'm Still Standing and Your Song, Les Rita Mitsouko's Andy, the Spice Girls' Wannabe, Los del Rio's Macarena and PSY'S Gangnam Style.
“It's a rabbit hole,” Robitaille said.
Till now, one of his most popular covers had been Haddaway's 1993 club tune What Is Love?, which garnered more than one million views and created a buzz on TikTok in Brazil.
“I had all kinds of Brazilians writing me in Portuguese for a bit,” Robitaille said.
Robitaille is known as a feelgood performer who mixes humour with funky grooves and infectious hooks.
His covers series has allowed him to show off his vast collection of colourful shirts.
“For the first 70 videos, I didn't wear the same shirt twice,” he said. “It did me good to get dressed up, at the beginning of the pandemic. People were saying, `I haven't put on jeans in three months.' I was like, `I've been in a suit or a dress shirt every day.' ”
And while it's ironic Robitaille is finally getting international attention because of a cover song, he's happy just to spread some joy in challenging times.
“People need hope right now.”
If you look at my social media, since the spring I had gained maybe 1,000 followers. Since Monday, I've gained 10,000.