Elisapie gets nostalgic with Inuktitut rendition of Heart of Glass

It turns out "heart of glass" is difficult to translate into Inuktitut, as Indigenous languages are more literal than metaphorical.

"You have to say 'the heart has become fragile.' That's how I was able to translate it," said Inuk singer/songwriter Elisapie.

This month the Montreal-based artist released Uummati Attanarsimat, an Inuktitut rendition of Blondie's Heart of Glass, which will be on her upcoming album in September.

Elisapie is from Salluit, a village in Nunavik, the Inuit region of northern Quebec. She said translating the song was personal to her.

"Elders know the melody but they were never able to really understand the lyrics because they don't speak English," she said.

"Knowing that they'll listen to this and have a whole new layer … for me is so exciting."

The single Heart of Glass was released in 1979, two years after Elisapie was born.

"Not long before [the] Blondie song came out, we were still pretty much nomads moving around, living in igloos and then of course the settlements around the '60s," she said.

For her the song is nostalgic and transports her back in time. She said revisiting the past through music is healing.

"One day this song came on in the small dance hall in a small town in Akulivik where we used to go visit family," she said.

"I remember just people gathering, jumping on the dance floor, just dancing away."

She's been singing since she was a little girl but growing up, Elisapie said she felt her prospects were limited. That was until she heard Inuk singer Susan Aglukark for the first time at about 14 years old, and she said it felt like the walls came down.

"That definitely was a huge impact in my life," she said.

LISTEN | Elisapie speaks to CBC Radio's Northwind:

Now she has her own fans. Jennifer Munick-Watkins, from Kuujjuaq in Nunavik, owns all four of Elisapie's albums.

"She's an activist in her own way, contributing to the northern Arctic for Inuit through her music and I'm very proud of her," Munick-Watkins said.

Activist Ellen Gabriel of Kanehsatà:ke, a Kanien'kehá:ka community northwest of Montreal, saw Elisapie perform in Montreal in December, and said she spoke about the federal Indigenous languages act.

"She has a platform which she's using to advocate for Indigenous people."

"I think her strength is rooted in her identity and that she's proud of it. It's really refreshing and so I have a lot of admiration for her."

Gabriel's favourite song is Wolves Don't Live by the Rules on Elisapie's Juno award-winning album The Ballad of the Runaway Girl.

Debbie Harry, who co-wrote and sang Heart of Glass, has heard Elisapie's version of her song and wrote her a note saying how impressed she was by it.

Uummati Attanarsimat (Heart of Glass) has been played on Spotify nearly 130,000 times since March 7.

"It feels like I'm on a little roller coaster of emotions," said Elisapie.

Elisapie has also curated a Spotify playlist of circumpolar Indigenous music that "sometimes sounds ancient and also very contemporary, very bold music that Inuit and Indigenous people from the Arctic have."