Montreal singer releases first Christmas album – in English, French and Italian

“The goal was really to make them touching and to try to bring back the focus on the real spirit of Christmas," said Montrealer Nicola Ciccone on his first Christmas album - in English, French, and Italian. Teresa Romano reports.

By Teresa Romano, OMNI

“L’esprit de Noël” is Nicola Ciccone’s first Christmas album and the 14th of his career.

It includes eight covers of holiday classics and four original songs written by the Montreal singer-songwriter.

“In the last two years or three we’ve been through a pandemic, we’ve been through many elections, so many reasons to divide and I wanted to unite,” said Ciccone. “It’s my 14th record.

“I also had the chance to sing in three different languages in this record so I could really showcase the different sides of my personalities – Italian, French and English – which was a challenge but also a great pleasure for me.”

Included on the album are songs that Ciccone wanted to make more intimate.

“The goal was really to make them touching and to try to bring back the focus on the real spirit of Christmas, not the material side,” said Ciccone. “We all like to get Christmas (gifts), don’t worry, I like it too. But the real reason Christmas is around is to try to come together with our families, with our friends, with people that we fought during the year, but that we can maybe forgive and build back those bridges.

“That’s really the spirit of Christmas for me and that’s the spirit of this record.”

Ciccone is a spokesperson for several foundations and says it’s important to him to give back – and not just at Christmas.

“When you are in a Christmas aura or spirit, it’s even easier to become altruistic and to give. But I always find that I receive more than I give,” said Ciccone. “Because these people are so magical with me and so happy.

“It gives meaning to what I do also, to the world of showbiz. It’s a lot of smoke so this is real. It’s like you know it’s a real cause, it’s not smoke, and it’s not superficial. There’s real people behind it suffering so to try to help them a little bit with my notoriety makes it that I am a little bit more useful.”

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