Multi award-winning Newfoundland singer songwriter Colleen Power is about to release her third French language album.

It features the song ‘L’Inconnu‘- which means someone who is not known or recognized – and is set on Bell Island in the late 1700s.

The Placentia native says while many people are familiar with the French presence in Placentia, French settlement occurred, and its influence was felt, throughout Newfoundland and Labrador.

During her research into the French presence in Placentia, she stumbled across a story about a couple of Bell Island fishermen who were captured by a French naval ship in 1796.

“Their names were Thomas Dwyer and Daniel Dwyer” says Power. “They were fishing off Bauline, and taken to France as prisoners. Some 40 years later, Thomas Dwyer decides ‘I want to go bake home’ so he comes back to Bell Island. He ended up there all dressed up in French fashions and speaking French, and wasn’t recognized” by the people of Bell Island. “So, that’s where the song came from.”

The video, which focuses on what Dwyer was wearing to make him stand out from the rest of the population, was shot on Bell Island with the assistance of VOCM’s Russell Bowers.