Just how much is “exposure” worth to a performing artist? Earlier this week, singer Inez Louis turned down an offer from the Vancouver Canucks of the NHL to perform the American national anthem in front of the crowd on its First Nations Night event.
According to a Facebook post, the reason is an offer that was just too low to accept, namely, $100 and two tickets to the game.
After she took to social media, other Indigenous performers chimed in to relate similar experiences, including offers of zero compensation.
But we don’t pay any performers well…
In a statement to CityNews, the Canucks noted that the compensation was the same for everyone who sings the anthem. The team also pointed to other elements of the First Nations Night, including a $20,000 donation to Native Education College on behalf of the Canucks for Kids fund, and a fundraising effort for the Orange Jersey Project, an initiative devoted to ongoing education about residential schools and their legacy.
Even outside the NHL, professional sports teams, which pay their players in the millions, are known for the lowball rates they offer to performers. The NFL’s Superbowl halftime show, which costs millions to stage, is known to pay its high profile music stars a zero dollar performance fee, and only union scale rates for their time. Earlier this year, a dispute with the performers’ union resulted in an agreement that would see all dancers on the field paid. Previously, the majority had worked as unpaid volunteers.
Vancouver Musicians’ Association president Noah Reitman commented to reporters.
“Well, it’s a commodity. I’ll say that a very similar union would be the players’ union for the Canucks. Because guess what? People love to play hockey too, but it’s important that hockey players are fairly compensated, and they know that, and they’re paid well because they insist upon it.”
It’s more than just the pay
Inez Louis is a singer from the Skowkale First Nation in the Fraser Valley region. While the COVID-19 pandemic has shifted her focus to her other gig as a healthcare worker, she is an accomplished artist. She has won six Aboriginal Peoples’ Choice Music Awards (now known as the Indigenous Music Awards), and is a two-time Juno nominee.
In a statement to CityNews, Louis described why the low offer was particularly problematic at an event purporting to honour First Nations.
“I am the descendant of a people who have been oppressed by a race-based law, the Indian Act; living in a colonial society that has suffered many setbacks — intergenerational trauma, residential schools, Sixties Scoop, missing and murdered Indigenous women and boys — so many things,” Louis told CityNews reporters. “So to be disrespected like that, I just said ‘No, thank you’ and was happy to move on, and maybe they could offer this free opportunity to somebody else.
“Because I know my worth at this point, and I do need to represent my family and my community in a good way, and to ultimately be respected.”
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