A couple of our wealthiest Montrealers happen to have daughters with fledgling singing careers and your job is to vote which of the prosperous pop princesses is the better.
First there's Jessika Bertrand, daughter of Vic Bertrand, whose parents started what's now Mega Brands, in 1967. The company makes little Lego-style toys and other such children's stuff in a plant in LaSalle (I met a guy who works there, said it's crazy hard work). The company has hundreds of millions of dollars worth annual sales are considered one of the city's larger business stories. The Bertrand's extravagant Beaconsfield mansion is on the block now too by the way.
Then there's Chloe Stroll - daughter of Lawrence Stroll, 53, son of Leo Strulovitch, who is a new addition to the Forbes list. He made about $1.8 billion in various fashion endeavors including ownership stakes in Michael Kors and Tommy Hilfiger. Stroll's other child, a son, likes to race cars, as he does himself at his own Tremblant racetrack. They have a variety of homes in such places as Westmount, Mount Tremblant, Switzerland and London.
Please peep at the videos below and give us your verdict.
18 comments:
As for Stroll, I have absolutely no respect for somebody who disrespects his own family heritage by changing his name. What, sounds "too Jewish" otherwise?
Jessika Bertrand apparently enjoys walking on the Jean Coutu side of the street, as the saying goes...as is quite popular with West Island girls of her age.
Can we vote for none of the above? This isn't talent. Gimme a break.
wayne, what does "walking on the jean-coutu side of the street" mean?
onkel charlie
Jessika's going to have to learn to lip-sync a lot better than that.#fail
@ Wayne Dayton: So many Jewish people as well as other Europeans ie:Russians, Poles changed their name by Anglicizing it upon arriving to Canada and the USA. Ralph Lauren is Ralph Lipschitz - though that was more for marketing his business selling ties when her started in 1969. It was not always the choice of the person themselves. Millions came through Pier 21 in Halifax or Ellis Island in NYC, and guess what happened. Anglo Saxons sitting there doing the documentation would see a name that looked foreign, could not pronounce it and would assign new them new names that were more English tongue friendly pronunciations. God, the lack of respect was often in reverse to what you are saying. And numerous Jews wise to the boiling anti-semitism fermenting in the 1930's in Germany changed there name on purpose to get to France etc. Sort of a survival thing which is about respecting your right to live and enabling oneself the chance to live. And some arriving here, no doubt after seeing horrors in Europe you would never wish to see, due to one's name/ethnicity thought it wise to blend in to make a new chance. Kind of makes sense due to the climate of the era.. No? I think yes... I'm not Jewish btw.
Onkel Charlie...give it some deep thought...what do WI girls like to do amongst themselves more than anything else at slumber parties and other exploratory themed events?
Blork, my kids tell me that it's now considered acceptable for the singer to sing along with a recorded vocal track, I know because I asked why Rihanna did this on SNL and they didn't bat an eyelash.
And my vote between these two goes to Jessika Bertrand here. The Chloe Stroll performance seems to be trying a bit hard to prove some sorta virtuoso vocal range and the beat isn't all that compelling.
Keep 'em coming gals!
wayne, as far as I know slumber parties are for making smores and doing each others hair; while jean coutu does sell graham crackers, marshmallows, chocolate, and hairspray, I get the sense I am missing something. please elaborate.
onkel charlie
LOL! "Walking on the Jean Coutu side of the street" Classic. I've never heard it before but I'm keeping that one.
Jean Coutu often has a sale on their house brand Personnelle batteries...they can sometimes come in handy at a slumber party as well.
As for changing names, we are not talking about 1918 or 1939 here, but apparently a man who did this while already in Canada and in the 1950s...
I feared there was a lesbo component to the expression...
Btw, changing names is nothing new. Its happening now in universities all over US&Canada where administrators or teachers rename foreign students Robert, Victor or Michael arbitrarily and plaster these names all over the poor newly arrived student papers who then gets stuck with that stupid unwelcomed name forever.
Changing family name is much more complex though as the driver license, government ID and the likes are based on birth certificate. Lots of singers or fashion people will do it for the cool factor or to internationalize their brand, the hell with the heritage if it can bring more money.
For the record, Leo Strulovitch is Lawrence Stroll's father and Chloe's grandfather. Leo and Lawrence are two different people and two different generations.
I really don't get the Jean Coutu reference even if explained above.
And lastly regarding name changes, as mentioned in the last line 3 lines of my explanation of changing names..hello - McGill had quotas on letting Jews in the 40' and 50's as far as I know. Did Anti-Semitism end in 1945...hell no. There are a multitude of reasons why a persecuted group of people may decide to change their name after what they saw...even 10 years later. A decade is not a lot of time. The 1950's was not the rosy multicultural world it is now. Leaving the past memories and to give a new start to avoid the discrimination that went on for centuries probably is enough of a reason no matter what decade. Not hard to imagine. Even some Brits who to South America 50-70 years ago changed their names to fit into the Argentinian or Brazilian environment etc.
Anti-semitism was pretty rife in the Canadian establishment in the '50s as well. Jews were not allowed to join many country clubs up until the 60s and 70s.
I still don't really get the Jean Coutu phrase.
Those girls need to give a percentage of their meagre earnings to the AutoTune, because without it, their voices would be even worse. I appreciate Jessika's energy, though. She does seem committed to her act.
If the idea of changing one's name is to "blend in" and start a new life, then it completely defeats the purpose to openly advertise that you changed your name...just makes you look like an opportunistic blowhard. I do not ask someone if they changed their name...Peter Phillips, how do you do? But if you say "My name is Peter Phillips, formerly Igor Philsteinshitz..." then what good was it to change it, everyone now knows...
Wayne enlighten us:
Here's my twisted interpretation of the Jean Coutu expression:
from the original: ''walk on the other side of the street''
- Jean Coutu sells Personnelle batteries
- batteries are useful at some slumber parties
- batteries are used in which type of device by a woman for Personnelle consumption?
Im still missing the link between dildo and lesbian though.
Personnelle is the house brand at Jean Coutu. I was alluding to the fact that the majority of Beaconsfield Princesses enjoy the thrill of experimentation with their fellow Princesses, to a much higher degree than, let's say, the denizens of the Point or Park Ex. Such locales as Kuper Academy, West Island College, and Queen of Angels Academy, with their liberal arts traditions of opening the mind, make for a very open-minded society when it comes to trying new things.
Ah man...I like my version better
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