New Music From Canada
Montreal-based Singer, Tedy Releases His Debut EP Boys Don’t Cry By Deshaun Phillips Canadian pop performer, Tedy, has just released his debut EP, Boys Don’t Cry thru Sony Music Entertainment Canada. Originally from Haiti, this Montreal based singersongwriter has crafted together a six-song EP that, he says, “tackled themes of trauma.” The new EP deals with his struggles in the LGBTQ+ community and deals also with his masculinity. The songs “Boys Don’t Cry,” “Fireworks,” “Hopeless,” “Stuck,” “Twisted,” and “War” that he personally selected for this first release are somewhat
dark and soulful, filled with his distinctive vocal style coupled with pop sensibilities. “I think this EP will help a lot of people, just like it helped me. It’s an extreme emotional roller-coaster that is definitely worth the ride,” says Tedy. This whole experience has been somewhat traumatic to Tedy as prior to the release of the single, “Boys Don’t Cry,” he came out to all his fans on Tik Tok just before he released the video for this song. The emotionally charged video for this song is certainly intense and open to interpretation. The video starts off with Tedy confined to a chair with a noose around his neck dealing with spiders crawling on him. He seems to be a bit tormented by his inner demons as a young boy with an ice cream cone approaches him only to have it grabbed and thrown away by someone who is probably the father of the boy. Finally another youth comes up and removes the noose from Tedy’s neck. All of a sudden Tedy is suddenly attached and beaten by another man as he sings, “There’s no place to run.” There is a hell of a lot of symbolism going on in this video as Tedy tries to deal with his inner fears. Finally after a gang of four young men approach him menacingly, and he manages to slip out of his restraints
and he confronts them. And then the video ends. Tedy is obviously dealing with a lot of self-doubt here before he finally grabs hold of himself. The video offers up a powerful view of a man trying to deal with his inner demons to finally have him prevail at the end. The 28-year-old Montreal transplant has been creating quite a following for himself. His Tik Tok following has risen to an amazing 817.9 thousand followers with 39.9 million likes since just last April. He has also acquired 190 thousand listeners on Spotify, not to mention his Instagram followers have doubled. Not bad for a young man who just made his first major label deal. This isn’t Tedy’s first rodeo either. He released a couple of singles back in February of 2016 that did quite well for him also. Those are “Can I,” which went on to accumulate 5.4 million streams on Spotify and “Hold On Tighter” which was released in 2018 and has streamed over 2.2 million times of Spotify. Be sure to check out Tedy’s new EP, Boys Don’t Cry on Sony Music Entertainment Canada today. And be sure to watch his new video for “Boys Don’t Cry” when you get the chance. Both the EP and the video are very powerful statements about the struggles he has been going through.
October 2020 • Rock and Blues International 45
