Kamilou, 23-year-old Montreal rapper, heads to France after FEQ breakthrough

Kamilou is riding a breakout year. The 23-year-old rapper from Rosemont was a Francouvertes finalist last year and has since played the Francos de Montréal, the Festival franco-ontarien in Ottawa, and this week the Festival d'été de Québec. Now she's been invited to France's Rose Festival in Toulouse in August — a slot that surprised her, especially since she'll share the lineup with Aya Nakamura.

"It's overwhelming, I have a bit of impostor syndrome," she said. Her real name is Kamille Lévesque, and she pulls from jazz, rock, R&B, and pop influences in a style she refuses to nail down. "It's rap, but at the same time, it's not rap," she said.

The catch: she doesn't have a full album yet. To fill hour-long festival slots, she accelerated work on a second EP and performed half-new material at the Québec fest this week — songs that won't drop until fall 2026. She recorded back vocals to add texture to live shows but is still working with rough maquettes, essentially debuting unreleased work in front of crowds.

At FEQ, she showed a grunge-leaning shift away from the lo-fi, jazz-influenced sound of her earlier work. "I wanted to make music for the stage," she said. "We went heavy on electric guitars, big drums, the whole kit." She credits better mental health for the shift toward less "downer" music.

Crowds at her shows are still small — she's just starting out — but word is spreading fast across the festival circuit.