User blog:BeccaSchmecca/Showgirls, Inc. aftermath: Jennifer Augé

In 2004, Canadian girl group Showgirls, Inc. stormed Canada with the song "Mise en garde", which as you know is sung to the tune of "Body & Soul" by SPEED. "Mise en garde" placed 6th at the end of the evening. Showgirls, Inc. later went on to do three (3) concert tours, but have split shortly after the L'amour nous guidera Tour ended while learning that their contract with Proud Records expired.

And now, after all these years, I'm finally pulling a Sherlock Holmes and finding out what the four (4) talented members of Showgirls, Inc. have been up to shortly after their (unexpected) split. First, I started with Judith Barthélemy. Then came Agnes Boisson. After that was Natalie Allard. And finally, I'm doing Jennifer Augé, aka the youngest member, having been born in 1995.

Un espoir, Montréal
In June 2009, Augé was among one of the featured artists performing at a benefit concert which took place at Montreal's Stade Olympique, along with other multi-genre singers and the Montreal Symphony Orchestra (conducted by an unknown person) in order to donate money to Hôpital Notre-Dame. Some of the songs that were performed in her set included Charlie Chaplin's "Smile", Jordin Sparks's "One Step at a Time", Kelly Clarkson's "A Moment Like This", and Judy Garland's "Over the Rainbow". Other parts during the show included Augé performing collaborations with other featured artists for covers of songs like "The Prayer", "Heaven Knows", "Wannabe", and "When the Rain Begins to Fall". Footage of her performances were filmed by fans in the audience and uploaded on Dailymotion and Vimeo. When a Vimeo user named Porsche Marie Osaka uploaded footage of Augé's "A Moment Like This" rendition, another Vimeo user commented: "I tried to film Jennifer's cover of ‘Over the Rainbow’ but my phone died and I couldn't save the planned storage. :("

Norman Praz and Hullabaloo
Augé first caught record producer Norman Praz's attention in late September 2009. She was selected for the regional semi-finals of his "Praz Talent Search Contest", finishing as runner-up, and on December 5, she sang in the "Norman Praz & Friends" concert at the Colisée Pepsi in Quebec City.

On May 3, 2010, Augé released her independent debut album, Hullabaloo. The album had 10 original songs, 7 of which written by Augé herself, and the other 3 were co-written by other people. It debuted on the Billboard Canadian Hot 100 at No. 12, and at No. 5 on the Canadian Albums Chart chart, in September. Augé's parents withdrew the album later that month, citing her vocal progress since its release. Through October and November of that year, she co-headlined a tour with Vancouver-based Frank Vardi. This co-headlining trek was known as the 2 Stars, 2 Destinies Tour. It visited Canada, France, Switzerland, China, and Japan. Click here for more details.

Exposure
Augé's first release on a major record label was a Warner Music Canada EP titled Exposure. It was released on June 3, 2011, and entered the Billboard 200 at No. 6, making Augé the top-selling debut artist for 2011 and one of the youngest Canadian solo artists ever to debut in the top 20. It also launched at No. 9 on Billboard’s Canadian Hot 100 chart and No. 2 on Billboard’s Canadian Albums Chart. The album sold 758,000 copies in its first week. The EP was certified platinum by the ADISQ, making Augé the youngest solo artist ever to go platinum in Canada.

Augé promoted the EP with TV interviews and performances starting in May 2011. Among several other talk show appearances that year, Augé was also interviewed on Tout le monde en parle, George Stroumboulopoulos Tonight, eTalk, and The Agenda. Augé performed in the 2011 Kitchener-Waterloo Oktoberfest and Toronto Santa Claus Parade.

Billboard ranked Exposure at No. 1 on its 2011 year-end Canada's Top 20 Countdown chart. It also ranked the album as the No. 5 best-selling album of that year in Canada and the No. 7 Swiss Album.

Retribution
Augé's second full-length feature album (her first on a major label), Retribution, produced by Norman Praz for Warner Music Canada, was released on October 19, 2012. The album debuted at No. 2 on the Billboard 200 chart, reached No. 1 on Billboard’s Canadian Hot 100, and was certified gold by the ADISQ. The album also performed well internationally, with Augé becoming one of the youngest artists ever to debut in China in the top 5. The album has 10 songs, all of which were written and Augé herself. CIRPA gave the album 4½ stars out of five, and Ottawa Citizen rated the album 3½ stars out of four, commenting: "[Augé's] sweet voice hardly gets rid of her young age…But the predictable and often bombastic self-written songs found on Retribution can undermine the teen's most appealing quality: power."

In February 2013, the singer began her first solo tour across the globe to promote the album. It consisted of 29 performances with a five-piece backup band, including her Cairo concert debut at Cairo Opera House in May, where she was the first pop singer to perform at the venue. Augé's tour stops in Oceania were the tenth top-grossing tour reported by Billboard for the relevant week. Augé concluded the tour in May with four (4) stops in Asia.