2024 MusicNL Award Winner for Fans Choice Entertainer of the Year
You bought the tickets months ago. Stood in line to get in. Waited for the opening act to finish their set. Now, at last, the band or musician you waited for is playing that hit single or deep cut that definitely made all the time, cash and travel invested worth it. Now Newfoundland and Labrador Mi'kmaq country sensation Jason Benoit nails that feeling with the impressive single "I Wanna Hear That Song."
Benoit says "I Wanna Hear That Song," co-written by him and friend Gerry Foote, was inspired from more than a decade performing in Canadian country music circles and noticing one simple, universal fact. "EVERYONE wants to hear a song they can sing along to, whether that be a song by the artist themselves or even a cover song," he says. "So with this in mind, while traversing the highways and byways of Ontario on tour, we wrote this track."
Listen on Spotify here: open.spotify.com/track/5hHHml9UdSrcGBB1IiB8SA
The joyous single, with its toe-tapping beat and some fine banjo playing by musician and multi-instrumentalist John Hynes (who co-produced the song with Benoit), resembles quality, radio-friendly material recalling the likes of Keith Urban or Tim McGraw. And like those artists, Benoit, who wrote "I Wanna Hear That Song" while touring Ontario in 2019, clearly does not take his audience for granted for a split-second.
Oh I never wanna leave
Can we just stay here please
If we get loud enough
Everyone get on your feet
Play the one that gets me through
The one for me and you
Never wanna go back home
"This song is a tribute to the songs we love, as they are the reason why the fans spend their hard-earned money to come see live artists," Benoit, based in Fox Island River, Newfoundland, says. "It's a very profound moment when you hear your favorite song being sung by your favorite artist while you're in the same room; it creates a memory that lasts forever and you will always look back at that time, who you were with, and what life meant to you, and remember that for a second in time you truly got to experience something both magical and personal with the audience as a whole. It's truly a beautiful thing."
Benoit, who won a 2024 East Coast Music Association Country Recording of the Year Award for his Time Traveller album, has had a busy few years. This included a 2023 Canadian Country Music Association nomination for Alt-Country Album of the Year and four 2024 MusicNL nominations including Album of the Year for his EP The Deadwood. In 2023, he earned MusicNL's Fans Choice Entertainer of the Year and Indigenous Artist of the Year. And "I Wanna Hear That Song" should only result in a few more nominations down the road.
Now "I Wanna Hear That Song," the follow up to Benoit's "1000 Mile Grin" single, will only propel that popularity both nationally and beyond. It's also a tremendously apt, appreciative crowd-pleaser that's bound to make fans old and new buy the tickets, pay for the babysitter, and make the late bedtime worth it all just to see Jason Benoit. In short, you'll wanna hear this song!
