Paolo Noël, the “singing sailor”, died Sunday morning at the age of 93.
The family announced the news of his death in a brief message posted on the Facebook page of the singer’s daughter-in-law, Pascale Lanari, without giving details on the causes of death. He suffered from Alzheimer’s disease.
The singer had recently been admitted to palliative care.
Prime Minister François Legault sent his condolences to the loved ones and family of the late singer.
“I have fond memories of this charming singer, of Toast and Coffee, of the youth music hall and of his tough role in Omertà,” he wrote on Twitter.
Born in Montreal on March 4, 1929, Paolo Noël spent part of his childhood in Gaspésie before returning to the metropolis. A particularly successful imitation of the French charm singer Tino Rossi enabled him to win a radio competition at CKAC in 1948. The following year, he made his cabaret debut by taking over the successes of Rossi, but also of the “prince of operetta Luis Mariano. He takes the opportunity, however, to slip into his singing tour, accompanying himself on the guitar, his own compositions.
He then joined Jean Grimaldi’s traveling troupe for several years, which toured “French America” with his burlesque revues interspersed with song numbers. During all this time, he also recorded his first records, with titles ranging from the blue flower song to odes to the sea and boats, through Christian heritage. He will thus be very successful with titles like “Virgin Mary”, “The song of the little sailboat” or “The most beautiful tango in the world”.
He also hosted programs on CKVL radio, but also on Radio-Canada television – the variety show “Music-Hall” in 1955. At the same time, he performed in several popular Montreal cabarets, and even became master of ceremonies at Café Havana and the renowned Casa Loma.
He then piloted several programs on Télé-Métropole, including “Toast et café” (with Dominique Michel), “Le music-Hall des jeunes” and “Les tannants de chez-nous” (with Gilles Latulippe). In 1968, the readers of the “gossip newspaper” Télé-Radiomonde elected him “Monsieur Radio-Télévision” at the Gala des artistes. He then moved to the CJMS radio station, where he hosted the program “Le Café provincial”.
Paolo Noël remained present on the charts throughout the 1960s, with pop-romantic hits such as “I was 20” or “Love is blue”. He will make the Place des arts in 1971, after his success “I love you”. His career continues in cabarets in Quebec, but also in Florida, in winter, on the trail of the “snowbirds”.
In 1973 and 1974, he offered various whimsical songs ranging from “Flouche flouche, prout prout” to “Flip, Flop et Fly”, passing by “T’as ben des beaux bip-bops”, which were very successful, but who would probably not pass the test of sexism and homophobia today.
In addition to his career as a singer, Paolo Noël has also been an actor, notably in the third season of the television series “Omertà – The Law of Silence”, in 1999, in which he played the impassive hitman Tony Potenza. He will resume this role in the cinema in 2012 in the film “Omertà”, which will be less successful. He also played in the film “Danger for Society” by Jean Martineau in 1969, and a lot in “Les Doigts croches” by Ken Scott in 2009, and “Ma tante Aline”, by Gabriel Pelletier, in 2007.
The singer-songwriter has also told his life in three volumes: “Between love and hate: from orphanage to success” (1980), “Between love and love: thus turns the wind, turn life” (1983), and more recently “I bit into life and life bit me” (2012).
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