Francine Honey is an internationally acclaimed Songwriter, Singer, Multi-Instrumentalist, Independent Recording Artist, Record and Video Producer.  Francine offers a blend of Americana, Alt-Country, Singer-Songwriter, Folk, and Blues, creating a unique and soulful sound. She is known for her heartfelt and authentic music. With a mission to help people one song at a time. Francine believes that by sharing her life stories in song, others will know they are not alone through life’s ups and downs.

Francine’s talent and stories have been acknowledged by many including the Austin Songwriting Group in Texas, where she received first-place honours in the Country and Singer-Songwriter categories for her songs “Stay” and “Can’t Break Through to You.” in 2022.  In 2022, she was awarded a scholarship by the Buddy Holly Educational Fund in Lubbock, Texas and asked to form part of the invitation only Next Level Music Group based out of Austin, writing with current Nashville hit writers.  Francine was most recently awarded the 2023 Songwriter of the Year award by the Austin Songwriter Group International with 10 song placements, winning in the Blues, Folk/Americana, Love Songs and Inspirational categories.  This shows the breadth of Francine’s writing spanning multiple genres.

Starting with the story, adding in a rich, warm voice along with either a guitar, piano, lap steel, ukulele or the Crystal Singing Bowls and an empathetic soul, and you have the recipe for a healing experience when listening to her music. Francine Honey is all of these things, a survivor whose journey and life experiences have built character and she’s ready to share her story.

Music has always been a part of her life and life was going as planned.  She was happy working for an independent IT company after getting a university degree in IT.  She was married with two beautiful young children when mental illness took hold of her husband. It wasn’t too long before it broke up her family unit.  That coupled with a job loss within a month of each other forcing her to start over, re-locate, find a new career in the federal government, and raise her children alone. Music took a back seat, and she never stopped writing even if the songs went unfinished. “I finally realized I had stories to share, and there was still an opportunity for me to turn my musical hobby into my profession.”

While Honey is not a touring artist per-se, you will find her performing as part of her international travels at festival showcases; Songwriter In-The-Round events; livestreams; private events presenting custom written personal songs; conferences after having worked with a team to write a theme song based on the organizations’ goals and values; or, meeting with music supervisors and writing songs for their upcoming projects. Francine continues to release music.  Her 4R motto of wRite, Record, Release and Repeat has her buzzing in the Honey Music Hive. 

2023 will see her release a song a month starting in June with “Come Sit in My Chair” along with a variety of video representations leading up to the release of her 7^th album entitled “Rockets In My Boots” along with more writing and recording in Nashville, Austin and Italy.  She is finding success on her own terms and supports others to do the same, reaching for their dreams and healing themselves on the way, clearing out what stops them from doing the same, she hopes all with her music!  

“I just want to keep going, writing and producing remarkable songs. I am a songwriter and storyteller. I know I’ll do this the rest of my life.  This is my legacy, one song at a time.”

As a life-long learner, Francine started learning how to produce in her living room after work.  She self-produced her debut album in 2008, “An Ordinary Woman,” which consisted of personal songs she had written.   This experience was what lit a flame that kept burning brighter.  Songs keeping her up at night and filling every waking hour until finally in 2013, Francine made the bold decision to leave her full-time job and pursue music full-time under her birth name, Francine Leclair.

She studied songwriting at Berklee and studied songwriting with many of her idols in Nashville.  She released the album “Re-Drawn” in 2014, produced by Lang Bliss in Nashville.  With Lang she realized that there was something in her voice that was untapped.  She continued to hone her craft and explore her sound, re-recording many of her early songs for the EP “An Ordinary Woman (In Studio)” in 2015 with SharkTank Productions.

In 2018, Francine embarked on a collaboration with Grammy-nominated producer Neilson Hubbard in Nashville, TN. She recorded her full-length album, “to be continued…,” live off the floor in just six days and found the sound that she had been hearing in her head for her music. That combined with a 5-minute life-changing vocal lesson with Beth Neilson Chapman in 2015, Francine finally had a project she was proud of, so she released this internationally.  The album garnered critical acclaim worldwide, with her song “Stay” reaching the top 10 finalist position in the 2018 International Songwriting Competition in the Americana and Blues categories. among thousands of entries globally.  The song “Snowflakes on my Eyelashes” reached millions of people and to this day continues to help people through loss with the music video and CBC Country radio airplay for the song “Open Road”

As a bilingual artist, Francine released several French singles, including “Chez mon oncle Lucien” and “Floçons de neiges sur mes cils,” which received regular airplay on various radio stations including CBC Franco Country. Her French version of the song “I Soldier On,” titled “Je vis sans limites,” continues to be sought out for Remembrance Day ceremonies in schools.

Francine released the album “Take Me to the North Pole” in 2019, featuring 2 original songs along with re-imagined Christmas classics infused with a Country-Americana southern swagger. The album was recognized by Rolling Stone Magazine as one of the Top 40 Christmas Albums of the year.

Throughout her career, Francine has consistently released new music and connected with her fans through live performances. When the pandemic hit in 2020, she embraced the virtual world, hosting a weekly livestream series called “Honey In Your Coffee.” Her single “I Carry On,” dedicated to essential workers, reached over 1.8 million people and received recognition in songwriting competitions worldwide. This was followed by many single releases and the album “I Carry On” in 2021.  “I Carry On” has also received critical acclaim with the songs and videos reaching millions of people around the world, 2 #1s, 1 in Canada and 1 in London England.  Many songwriting award placements including the Blues and Roots Radio songwriting contest, the International Songwriting Competition and the UK Songwriting Competition.

Honey produces and directs high quality music videos as extensions of each song. As Honey explains “When I write a song, I imagine the movie that is playing for these 3 and half minutes and eventually it becomes its own movie in a video”.

Along the way, the down-to-earth songwriter has displayed extraordinary dedication to her craft.  In addition to her own artist career, there are many other aspects of the songwriting profession that she helps people and organizations with.  Building on years working in the government facilitating sessions to build consensus, Francine leads organizations in team-building exercises to write theme songs based on their values or project using a method she has developed.  This method also proves useful in a variety of settings including schools.  As a woman of science and arts who found success despite many challenges, Francine offers inspirational talks as a speaker at conferences. 

Whether it’s writing a personal custom song for a special occasion or with a group, finding the perfect soundscape that serves the song, then witnessing the joy in people’s faces when that song is presented…that is the magic of music.

In Francine’s own words, “Off the beaten path where the wildflowers grow,
Beyond the fences I find my soul.”