Ain’t Easy – Elijah Woods x Jamie Fine Go Gold & Want More
Ain’t Easy has been the biggest hit from CTV’s The Launch, with radio play, chart success, online spins, and now, more.
EWxJF recorded and released the song as part of the second episode of CTV’s The Launch (season one, January 20108), with the intention of launching their career. And since the release, they’ve been busy promoting, performing, and preparing for what comes next.
We’ve been casually following the Elijah Woods x Jamie Fine journey over the last few months. On social media, there have been photos posted from radio stations across the country as the Ottawa duo has made their way from coast-to-coast promoting themselves and the single.
It’s paying off.
In his introduction of EWxJF to a small room in Toronto on Friday evening, Scott Borchetta (Big Machine Label Group, The Launch) dropped a few points about the single that were all worthy of cheers.
‣ Ain’t Easy is currently sitting at #5 on the Canadian pop charts
‣ Ain’t Easy is getting a French language release
‣ Ain’t Easy will be released as a single in the US, a first for Elijah Woods x Jamie Fine, and CTV’s The Launch
‣ Ain’t Easy has officially reached Gold status in Canada, another first for EWxJF
Related: The Launch’s Elijah Woods x Jamie Fine Interview, Review, and 5 Quick Questions
Elijah and Jamie hit the small stage in Toronto’s Liberty Village neighbourhood with the support of their band, bringing drums, keys, bass, and electric guitar to the mix. All of that added to Elijah’s work on his keys and board + Jamie’s soaring vocals to create as full a sound as we could have expected from the admittedly novice popstars.
The fact that Woods and Fine had never performed live together as a duo before The Launch should not be forgotten. They had successful Spotify tracks to their credit (Wouldn’t Be Enough and Catchin Feels both have more than 1 million spins), but playing live, for a crowd, and doing this music thing for the world was brand new when they took on the challenge of the show.
Here’s the thing though – all of that is easy to forget when you see them on stage.
The energy, confidence, and ability that the duo portrays on stage would make you think that they’ve been doing exactly this for years.
In trying to come up with ways to explain what I felt and saw when they were on stage I had notes like…
‣ The comfort in the performance is clear
‣ They are leaning into this
‣ No fear
‣ Energy and vibe are there now
Those are all things that we hope to say about live performances, especially in pop music. But getting to all of those notes ain’t easy.
There’s another note on my list, one that I almost got to earlier about Jamie’s vocals.
On their episode of The Launch, it was very clear, very early, that Jamie Fine could sing. Like really, really sing. And in listening to the recorded and released version of Ain’t Easy, we all heard again that there’s no concern about her ability to take a song and carry it as far as it can go. BUT, in person on Friday, Miss Fine blew us away!
The live vocals that Jamie Fine threw down in a small room, on a small stage, at 6pm were exactly where you’d want them to be in a stadium, on the biggest stage, headlining the show. The talent is there. The range is there. Hell, she raps too. My note says this: “Pipes. Pipes. Pipes. What we saw on the show x10”, and I stand by it.
After the Elijah Woods x Jamie Fine showcase performance of about 10 songs, it was clear to everyone in the room that there’s a lot more to come from these two young performers. And with a team around them that is ready to go to work to make it happen with them, there looks to be a lot more success on the horizon.
Keep your eyes open for Elijah Woods x Jamie Fine. They’re not just TV contest winners, they’re gold.
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