Haitian-Canadian artist Wesli performed in the Expedia Cultural Exchange Pavilion on Friday, May 2, 2025 at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival.
SWOMP captured these images from his performance:
Born Wesley Louissaint in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, he has grown into his role as a prolific songwriter, guitarist and producer. Uniting a large cross section of Montreal talent, his music links Haitian voudou and rara with roots, Afrobeat, and hip-hop. Guest spots on his albums include the likes of Tiken Jah Fakoly, Paul Cargnello, and Malika Tirolien. He has toured under the GlobalFest banner with the Caribbean All Stars.
Since being crowned the Revelation Radio-Canada for 2009–2010, Wesli has gone on to win the Babel Med Music Prize (2010), SOCAN’s Hagood Hardy Award (2016), an award from the Académie Charles CROS (2019), a Juno for World Music (2019), a Félix for Album of the Year in World Music (2019), and a CFMA for World Solo Artist of the Year (2020).
He has toured across North America, Haiti, Colombia, Brazil, and Europe, and participated in WOMEX, Mundial Montréal and Cape Verde’s Atlantic Music Expo.
Follow Wesli at https://wesliband.com/.