Vincenzo Thoma travels “De Rome à Montréal”
letto su ITALOCANADESE DEL 20 Jul 2015 11:29 am | Agata De Santis
Singer/songwriter Vincenzo Thoma’s new album, De Rome à Montréal, is quite simply a love song for Quebec.
Thoma’s personal message in the liner notes explains the raison d’être for his first French-language album: “De Rome à Montréal, c’est mon histoire d’amour avec le Québec, sa culture, sa langue, son accueil chaleureux aux égards de mes origines italiennes!” [De Rome à Montréalis my love story with Quebec, its culture, its language, its warm welcome in respect to my Italian origins!]
Thoma was born in Italy and emigrated to Canada in 1994. His choices in Italy limited, he decided to move to Montreal to seek out greater opportunity and experiences. He didn’t know a word of English or French on first arrival, but would soon master both languages. He now works fluently in Italian, English and French.
“This is probably my first Québecois album. Before this album, I was the ‘Italian,’” Thoma muses.
“You know, everyone has to travel, everyone has a journey to make every day in order to move forward, to reinvent themselves. So yes, this album is an immigrant story, but it’s also a story of everyone’s journey.”
“This is probably the best album I’ve made in terms of musical experimentation. I took the liberty to venture out in different styles,” Thoma continues.
Over the years Thomas has collaborated with countless artists and musicians, including Lara Fabian, Roch Voisine, Marie-Élaine Thibert, Mia Martini, Filippa Giordano, Gigi Finizio, Dan Bigras, Patrick Fiori, Chimène Badi, Ima, Bruno Pelletier and Tocadéo.
His résumé includes credits as a composer, lyricist, musician, arranger, singer and teacher. One of his most interesting credits is as the singing voice of Aladin in the Italian version of Walt Disney Picture’s animated film, Aladin.
Thoma’s previous album, Romantico, featured ten of the greatest love songs from the past thirty years, adapted in Italian for the first time ever. Thoma was both the translator and the singer on each track, which included songs by Sting, Bryan Adams, Elton John, George Michael, and Phil Collins.
With De Rome à Montréal, Thoma recounts different aspects of an immigrant’s story, from the journey to a new country as interpreted in De Rome à l’île de Montréal and Le Voyageur, to sentiments of nostalgia and displacement as interpreted in songs like Controvento and Parle-Moi.
De Rome à Montréal is available on iTunes at
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