Raymond Lévesque
Raymond Lévesque | |
---|---|
Born | Montreal, Quebec |
October 7, 1928
Died | Script error: The function "death_date_and_age" does not exist. |
Genres | Pop |
Occupation(s) | Singer-songwriter |
Instruments | Vocals, piano |
Years active | 1940s–1980s |
Raymond Lévesque (October 7, 1928 – February 15, 2021) was a Canadian singer-songwriter and poet from Quebec.[1] One of the pioneers of the chansonnier tradition in Quebec,[2] he was best known for writing "Quand les hommes vivront d'amour", one of the most famous pop standards in French-language popular music.[1]
Contents
Background
Born and raised in Montreal, he studied piano under Rodolphe Mathieu and drama under Madame Audet.[1] Shortly after, he met his wife, Marie Georgette, and they married soon after. Inspired by the work of Charles Trenet,[3] he began writing songs in the 1940s and started performing in various cabarets around Montreal. In 1947, he had his first significant breakthrough when he was invited to perform several of his songs on CKAC radio.
From 1952 to 1954, he was cohost with Colette Bonheur of the variety series Mes jeunes années on Radio-Canada. He then spent several years living in France, where he recorded for Barclay Records and had his songs recorded by French artists such as Bourvil, Jean Sablon, Cora Vaucaire and Eddie Constantine.[1] During this time he wrote "Quand les hommes vivront d'amour", which was inspired by the contemporaneous Algerian War; first recorded by Constantine, the song has since been recorded and performed by many artists in both France and Canada.[1] Other noted songs he wrote during this era included "Les Trottoirs", "La Vénus à Mimile", "Le Coeur du Bon Dieu" and "Rosemont sous la pluie".[1]
After returning to Quebec in 1959, he took acting roles in several téléromans and hosted the children's television series Coucou, and cofounded a boîte à chansons called Chez Bozo with Jean-Pierre Ferland, Clémence DesRochers, Hervé Brousseau, André Gagnon and Claude Léveillée.[4] In 1968, he also began to write poetry and plays, and became politically active in the Quebec separatist movement.[5]
In 1980, he received a lifetime achievement award from the Prix Félix.
By 1986, Lévesque had suffered profound hearing loss and was diagnosed as deaf. He abandoned music but continued to write, publishing several further works of poetry, fiction and political satire.
He was awarded the Prix Denise-Pelletier in 1997. He was named a winner of the Governor General's Performing Arts Award in 2005,[6] but declined the honour due to his sovereignist views.[7]
In 2016 a new song written by Lévesque, titled "Les jours d'amour", was recorded and released by singer Marie-Josée Longchamps.[8]
Lévesque died from COVID-19 during the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada on 15 February 2021.[9]
Discography
Albums
- 1962 – Chansons et monologues
- 1965 – Raymond Lévesque à la Butte-à-Mathieu
- 1967 – Après 20 ans
- 1971 – Raymond Lévesque
- 1972 – Qui êtes-vous, Raymond Lévesque?
- 1975 – Raymond Lévesque chante pour les travailleurs
- 1977 – Le p'tit Québec de mon cœur
Compilations
- 1989 – Collection souvenir
- 1993 – Québec love : Raymond Lévesque
- 1999 – Raymond Lévesque : 50 ans de chansons – Quand les hommes vivront d'amour
- 2005 – Raymond Lévesque – Collection Québec Info Musique
Bibliography
Poetry
- 1956 – Quand les hommes vivront d'amour
- 1971 – Au fond du chaos
- 1971 – Le malheur n`a pas des bons yeux
- 1974 – On veut rien savoir
- 1977 – Le Temps de parler
- 1981 – Électrochoc
- 1989 – Quand les hommes vivront d'amour II
- 2012 – La nouvelle pensée
Plays
- 1970 – Bigaouette
- 1974 – Tharèse
- 1980 – On veut savoir
- 1983 – C'est à ton tour mon cher René
- 1986 – Waitress
- 1988 – Deux mille ans après Jésus-Christ
Autobiography
- 1986 – D'ailleurs et d'ici
Novels
- 1995 – Ketchup : ou comment refaire le monde
- 2000 – Le petit Lalonde
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 aire Versailles and Rachelle Taylor, "Raymond Lévesque". The Canadian Encyclopedia, June 11, 2008.
- ↑ Bruno Roy, "Chansonniers". The Canadian Encyclopedia, February 7, 2006.
- ↑ "RAYMOND LÉVESQUE (1928 – …)". Star Québec, March 31, 2013.
- ↑ "Giant of Quebec music; Wrote for Edith Piaf, and honoured by both Canada and France". Ottawa Citizen, June 26, 2011.
- ↑ "Wait is on for Bill 86 regulations; Key nationalists divided on sign law". The Gazette (Montreal), June 2, 1993.
- ↑ "Governor General honours six artists". Windsor Star, September 30, 2005.
- ↑ "Poet rejects G-G arts award over sovereignty issues". Windsor Star, October 26, 2005.
- ↑ "Une nouvelle chanson signée Raymond Lévesque". Le Journal de Montréal, July 7, 2016.
- ↑ Le père de Quand les hommes vivront d’amour emporté par la COVID-19 Script error: No such module "In lang".
External links
- Raymond Lévesque discography at Discogs
- Raymond Lévesque at the Internet Movie Database
- Articles with short description
- Use mdy dates from January 2019
- Articles with hCards
- Interlanguage link template link number
- 1928 births
- 2021 deaths
- Canadian folk singer-songwriters
- French-language singers of Canada
- 20th-century Canadian poets
- 20th-century Canadian dramatists and playwrights
- 21st-century Canadian novelists
- Canadian male poets
- Canadian male dramatists and playwrights
- Canadian musical theatre composers
- Canadian autobiographers
- Canadian humorists
- Canadian novelists in French
- Canadian poets in French
- Canadian dramatists and playwrights in French
- Singers from Montreal
- Writers from Montreal
- 20th-century Canadian singers
- French Quebecers
- Canadian male television actors
- Canadian television variety show hosts
- Canadian male novelists
- 20th-century Canadian male writers
- 21st-century Canadian male writers
- Canadian male non-fiction writers
- Deaths from the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada