Luna Li and Gab Bouchard Win 2023 SOCAN Songwriting Prize

The wait is over. Three weeks after unveiling the finalists' list established by Canadian music industry professionals, the winners of the 2023 SOCAN Songwriting Prize have just been announced. The Canadian rights management organization aims to showcase the next generation of songwriters and showcase the people who make the music.

The award goes to the singer-songwriters Gab Bouchard and Mathieu Quenneville for "Ton shift est pas fini" by Gab Bouchard, as well as "Silver Into Rain" by Luna Li (featuring beabadoobee), both of which received the most public votes. They each beat out seven other nominees on two separate lists, one for music in French and one for music in English. The Francophone and Anglophone winners each receive a prize of $10,000.

"We are really pleased to receive recognition like this for the song 'Ton shift est pas fini.' It's fun to have the support of the public and to feel that the song we composed together has touched them," responded Gab Bouchard and Mathieu Quenneville in a statement. SOCAN CEO Jennifer Brown applauds the way the duo addresses depression and suicide in the song.

"We all know how to recognize a great song when we hear it, but few of us intimately understand the balance between emotion and the art of storytelling that achieves such a result, especially when dealing with such a delicate subject."

The Toronto-based singer-songwriter Luna Li, whose real name is Hannah Bussiere Kim, points out the irony of winning this award for "Silver Into Rain. "[It's] ironically a song about self-doubt and a lack of belief in myself, so to me this prize is a particularly meaningful symbol of support," she says. "I feel incredibly lucky to have so much encouragement early on in my career."

Gab Bouchard and Luna Li succeed last year's winners, Hubert Lenoir for "Secret" (written by Hubert Chiasson, Félix Petit, and Julien Chiasson), and Emily Steinwall for "Welcome to the Garden."

Check out all the nominated songs here.