OMIC releases bicentennial song blending four languages and musical traditions
"Heart of This Place" features Ottawa musicians including Amanda Rheaume and combines pop, rap, and Indigenous throat-singing to celebrate the city's 200th anniversary.
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Ottawa's music community has recorded a brand new original song to mark the city's bicentennial, blending multiple languages and musical genres into what organizers hope will become part of the city's cultural legacy.
"Heart of This Place (Adàwe c'est ma ville)" features songwriting and performing talents of Amanda Rheaume, Jessica Pearson, Yao, Qattuu, and Olivier Fairfield, produced at Studio Oblique. The track combines English, French, Anishinaabemowin, and Inuktitut lyrics with traditional pop, rap, and Indigenous throat-singing — sounds and words meant to represent Ottawa's diverse communities and history.
Rheaume served as artistic director during the songwriting process. "For me, it was important to honour where we've been, to help understand where we are now in the city, and to then look to the future and what we can all build together," she said. Before the songwriting began, the team participated in a grounding session led by Algonquin Elder Annie St. George, who also opens the music video with a territorial blessing.
Mélanie Brulée, executive director of the Ottawa Music Industry Coalition, said the song's intention is broader than celebration. "Grounded in respect for the millennia of history and Indigenous stewardship that shaped this place long before Ottawa's founding, the song celebrates our shared past while looking toward our collective future," she said. "We hope it becomes part of Ottawa's cultural legacy and reminds people that music has a unique ability to connect us, inspire us, and celebrate who we are together."
The recording highlights the city's significant Inuit population and culture, with guitar and frame drumming woven into the track. Rheaume emphasized the importance of the water that drew people to this place historically. "The water is really what brought everybody there in the first place," she said. The song will serve as a permanent digital resource for community organizations, schools, and audiences worldwide to learn and reflect on Ottawa's cultural heritage.
