Local artist opens up… and not just her vocal cords

By Carleen Schmidt

“I can sing all I want to my living room walls,” laughs Jeanette Arsenault, “but it’s the interaction with people that makes the singing worthwhile.”

Jeanette Arsenault is a singer-songwriter from Prince Edward County. She has achieved a number of awards, including the Leading Women, Building Communities award and the Prince Edward County Citizen of the Year award.

Arsenault began singing as a little girl. She remembers her first audition like it was yesterday.

“It was Grade 6 and I sang Signs by Five Man Electrical Band,” said Arsenault. It was for a variety night at her school and she got the role.

Arsenault laughed as she recalled how years after that first audition, she actually met the bass guitar player from Five Man Electrical Band.

Continuing with her passion throughout her growing years paid off in 1994 when she released her first album.

“It was released the same year my daughter was born; in fact I found out that I was pregnant while recording the album.”

Arsenault decided right then and there that she would not do any travelling away from her daughter; she chose to be a full-time mom and any singing she could do was a bonus.

Arsenault has continued to sing throughout the years, performing for the Canadian Olympic athletes both in Salt Lake City in 2002 and then in Athens, Greece in 2004.

She has also performed in four languages – English, French, Spanish and Italian – at the Business and Professional Women International World Congress in Helsinki, Finland, where 600 women from around the world, dressed in their native costumes, gave her a standing ovation.

The Quinte Arts Council has worked with and hired Jeanette Arsenault for many events. Carol Bauer, the artist and member services officer of the Quinte Arts Council, said Arsenault is very generous with her time and she supports many a worthy cause.

“The Quinte community is very lucky to have her,” said Bauer.

“She is absolutely fabulous,” exclaimed Bauer. “She’s talented, not just as a songwriter, singer and musician, but as an all-round performer. She always lights up the stage.”

Arsenault has performed for many community organizations and events. She has released six albums to date and has a seventh album to be released this summer.

“Each album represents a milestone in my life and each show has its own importance,” Arsenault said confidently.

She is a very busy woman, but she is sure of what she does and the messages she wants to send through her music.

“Ideas for songs come from my emotions, not from my head.”

Arsenault said she always gets her song ideas through something she has seen or heard somewhere that sparked her interest. She said you can never run out of song ideas: anything can be turned into a song; it’s endless.

“I can’t just sit down and say ‘OK, I need to write a song now.’ It has never worked that way for me. It has to come from something because if it doesn’t have soul or emotion than it won’t capture people,” said Arsenault.

Arsenault loves motivational songs and is motivational herself. According to Bauer, she is very supportive of local young performers, helping to give them opportunities to show their stuff.

Arsenault said her favourite part of what she does is communicating soul-to-soul with people, when she is making connections through a show.

“When I give, the audience gives back.”