Wesli is a man of two hearts 鈥� one in his native Haiti and one in his home in Canada.

Born Wesley Louissaint in Haiti in 1980, the multi award-winning artist now callas Montreal home. He is looking forward to sharing his culture with a Salmon Arm audience at Song Sparrow Hall on April 18, and learning from the people he plays for.

"This is very exciting and very emotional for me because my music is based on different aspects of my life," he said, pointing to the growing popularity of the music that mixes Haitian vodou and rara, with roots, Afrobeat, and hip-hop. "It is self-satisfying because I love to give more and more music, and it's good testimony for an ancient culture that is being loved by young people now."

Wesli's ancestors were from the Congo and, like many Black people from West Africa, were victim's of France's slave trade. His songs combine 60 per cent French words with a Creole patois that combines French, Spanish and African words of the Yoruba, Igbo, Ewe, Nago and other traditional music that is sung but never spoken in order to retain the purity of the language.

"We sing about joy, culture, tribal songs and the value of the diversity of African heritage," he said.

Originally sung in the cotton fields, the traditional songs raised spirits and allowed the slaves to retain their humanity and spirituality. But white masters wanted their slaves to convert to Christianity. The result was Haitian Vudou, several traditional religions of West and Central Africa combined with Roman Catholicism.

"I feel grateful to have an African heritage; it gave me the freedom to do what I am doing," he said, immensely proud that Haiti was the first free Black republic in the world. "It gave me the freedom and the right to speak as a black person, and the culture will keep us going because we have something good to give to the rest of the world."

Wesli's family was very poor and his father played his guitar on the beach to earn money from tourists to feed his wife and seven children.

"We barely had enough food to eat twice a day. I watched my father play and felt the need to play also," he said, noting his father forbade him from touching his guitar, so at the age of eight, he built his own. He found an old oil can and took it to a local instrument maker who created the wooden component. The strings were made with nylon fishing line.

"I went to the beach and said to my father, 'this is my guitar, help me finish it.'" He did, and Wesli began practising with his dad.

During the violence that erupted after the 1991 Haitian coup d'茅tat, Wesli's family sought sanctuary in a Cuban refugee camp but returned to the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince 15 months later where the 12-year-old completed his education.

As a teenager, Wesli produced, directed and recorded the soul album "Horizon" with the band SoKute, which became widely successful in Haiti and established his international reputation. At the age of 21, he won a scholarship contest sponsored by the Canadian government, which allowed him to study arrangement and percussion in Montreal.

The process of integrating his home culture with an unfamiliar world in Montreal in 2001 was difficult but transformational:

鈥淚 always like to say that I have two hearts. I have one heart in Haiti and I have one in heart Montreal, and that makes me who I am now.鈥�

In 2007, Wesli returned to Haiti and was moved by his newfound perspectives on the beauty and culture of his country of birth.

"It was a very emotional time; that's where I realized I could not default from my Haitian tradition and family."

In 2014, Wesli opened a music school in Port-au-Prince to give youths without means opportunities, and to keep them away from the violent gangs. But ever increasing chaos and violence meant he had to put the school on hiatus in 2021.

"For all I can give back to Haiti is what it deserves," he said, noting he has in his heart 10 more albums to make in honour of his native country.

Wesli's immense talents have earned him many prestigious awards since 2016: The Hagood Hardy SOCAN Award; the Dynasty World Music Award; the JUNO award for World Music Album of the Year in 2019, as well as the Felix for the World Music Best Recording Award at ADISQ in the same year. In 2020, he also won France's Coup de Coeur Acad茅mie Charles-Cros Prize, the Best World Music song from the American Independent Music Awards, as well as the title of Best World Music Artist at the Canadian Folk Music  Awards.

Wesli is equally proud of his adopted country and the city of Montreal that has a community numbering close to 150,000 people of Haitian descent.

"This is my second home and I am grateful for that," he says."We of African culture, everywhere we go we can see ourselves having a life. I can feel myself at home here where there is good culture and good music."

The versatile singer, multi-instrumentalist and producer has accompanied the greatest Caribbean artists and several big names in African music during their visits to Montreal.

Wesli performs at 7:30 p.m. on Friday, April 18 at Song Sparrow Hall at the intersection of Hudson Ave and Lakeshore Dr. NW. Doors open at 6:30. Tickets are available at songsparrowhall.ca.