A page of history is turning for Quebec culture. Singer Michel Louvain died Wednesday evening at Verdun hospital, at the age of 83. He suffered from esophageal cancer for which he had been hospitalized earlier this month.
Posted on April 14, 2021 at 10:06 p.m.
Updated April 15, 2021 6:13 a.m.
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“It is with great sadness that we inform you of the death of Mr. Michel Louvain (born Michel Poulin), son of the late Ernest Poulin and the late Jeannette Delisle,” said the producer of the deceased’s shows, Les Productions Martin Leclerc, in a press release released late Wednesday evening.
This announcement had barely been made that already, the wave of sadness caused by the disappearance of the interpreter of The lady in blue was felt intensely on social networks.
Record and show producer Martin Leclerc had worked with Michel Louvain for 10 years. But he considered the singer to be a member of his family: “I am losing a friend, a teacher, a big brother. And Quebec loses one of its greatest idols, of the caliber of Maurice Richard, Jean Béliveau, René Lévesque ”, entrusted Martin Leclerc to Press, Wednesday evening.
After 65 years of career, Michel Louvain remained very much in love with his profession. “He was very respectful of the public, but also of people in the music industry,” continues Martin Leclerc. He’s the nicest and most respectful man I’ve worked with. Michel has always been loyal in friendship and in business. He had the same agent for 40 years, the same musical director for 30 years… ”
According to the producer, over time, the popular crooner has been able to stay true to his musical niche, while adapting to changes.
This is one of the reasons for its longevity. He was still filling the halls and his audience was even getting younger.
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Producer Martin Leclerc
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Barely two weeks ago, Michel Louvain was in great shape. His entourage was very surprised to learn, on 1is April, that he was ill and had to be hospitalized. The singer had plans for shows and tours planned until the fall of 2022, including a tribute concert at the Festival d’été de Québec, on July 12, 2022, to mark his 85e anniversary. “Alas, all these beautiful projects will not materialize, saddens Martin Leclerc. But I’m going to find a way to pay tribute to him and celebrate his double birthday in 2022. ”
Reached by phone Wednesday evening, singer and producer Mario Pelchat, who knew Michel Louvain well and often shared the stage with him, said he was “extremely upset”. “It saddens me so much because in my head he was going to be okay. It was all appallingly fast, ”he told Press. Mr. Pelchat says he was eager for the shows to resume to return to the stage with Michel Louvain. The pandemic ultimately prevented them from doing so.
“He was a respectable and respected man. Rarely have I seen anyone as unanimous as he is, ”he says. “When my mother died, I arrived in the living room and the first flowers I saw at the entrance were those of Michel Louvain. It touched me enormously. I was waiting for the moment to say thank you and show him my respect. We were sure we would meet again, ”adds the artist, not without emotion.
PHOTO ANDRÉ PICHETTE, ARCHIVES THE PRESS
Michel Louvain sings at the evening of 39e ADISQ Gala, in 2017
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Mr. Louvain is survived by his spouse and partner of the past 25 years, Mario Théberge, as well as his sisters Thérèse Poulin, Ginette Poulin and Lucie Poulin.
Wave of reactions
On Wednesday evening, the reactions were quick to fuse on social networks. “Sophie and I would like to offer our most sincere condolences to the family and loved ones of Michel Louvain, a great Quebec songwriter. His good humor, elegance and charisma will be missed, ”wrote the Prime Minister of Canada, Justin Trudeau.
“The people of Quebec are losing an idol that has marked several decades. A professional, kind, respectful, modest man. My sympathies to all those close to this great artist ”, reacted the Premier of Quebec, François Legault.
A surge of love on social networks
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–The mayoress of Montreal, Valérie Plante, also sent her thoughts to the relatives of the deceased. “It’s a big one who is leaving us. Michel Louvain will have been able to mark an era and all of Quebec is mourning his departure this evening. Thanks to his charisma and his daring, he charmed us from start to finish, ”she said. Denis Coderre spoke of a “man of great generosity, the very embodiment of dignity and respect for his audience”.
A life for music and for Quebec
The charming singer, who until then was in great shape and had even participated in awareness messages for the elderly about health instructions, was planning to resume the Quebec tour of his show. The good life, started in October 2019 and discontinued due to the pandemic.
“I would like to be the Charles Aznavour of Quebec and sing at the Capitol at the age of 85”, he confided to the daily newspaper. The sun in 2009, far from thinking of retiring from the stage.
Watch excerpts from a performance by Michel Louvain at the Quebec City Summer Festival in 2017
His passion for song was matched only by the love that his admirers had for him. Messages of encouragement were also quick to flow on social networks shortly after the announcement of his hospitalization on April 7. “I send all my thoughts to my idol,” notably tweeted Liberal MP Christine St-Pierre.
“I deeply love Michel Louvain. My grandmother adored it and we listened to it every day. He’s kind of family, I can’t even describe it in words. Tons of love and good vibes, Michel, ”the host Annie-Soleil Proteau tweeted. The one who has seduced a whole generation of women, for the great majority, with successes like The lady in blue, Good night my Love, A certain smile, Near your heart, Louise, Lison, Linda and Sylvie, will have recorded thirty albums in more than 60 years of career.
Born July 12, 1937 in Thetford Mines, Michel Louvain dreamed of singing since childhood, making his debut in the choir of his hometown, then in the trio of his older brother. He arrived in Montreal at the age of 20; it was at this point that he adopted his stage name, singing in the nightclubs of the metropolis – nicknamed the “jungle” by his father, who worked in the asbestos mines.
PHOTO PIERRE MCCANN, ARCHIVES THE PRESS
Michel Louvain sang to Queen Elizabeth in 1969.
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He has also hosted television shows (Under the Montreal sky, Summer sky and We lovers, in the 1960s, and In a good mood, from 1986 to 1992), but he always said he was bored when he wasn’t singing. “It’s my drug,” he told the Novelist in 2019. Before the show starts, I go behind the curtain and I just listen to the sound of the hall, the people talking and there is an adrenaline rush. ”
You can’t imagine what it feels like: Even though I’m tired or had a bad day, I forget everything for the next two hours. I get so much love on stage, it’s really beautiful.
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Michel Leuven
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This love, Michel Louvain has never hesitated to give back to his fans, generously signing autographs without stopping, in front of endless lines, listening with patience to all those who confided in him. And his admirers gave him back fivefold. In The ladies in blue, published in 2008, the documentary filmmaker Claude Demers has precisely shown, through the testimonies of five women, the importance that the singer could take in the life of his most fervent faithful, one of them even having a portrait in company of the singer on a wall in his bedroom, next to his wedding photo.
After the glory, the honors
Michel Louvain is one of the rare Quebec stars to have aroused so much enthusiasm. After his consecration at the Gala des splendeurs, in 1958, during which he sang Good night my Love, the frenzy becomes hysterical with each of its appearances. A performance at the Odéon Mercier, at the same time, had caused a riot, forcing the cancellation of the screening of the film that was to follow, while Michel Louvain was evacuated on the shoulders of a police officer, he said. recalled in an interview with Radio-Canada, still stunned, more than 50 years after the events.
He admitted to even getting scared during a performance at the Palais Montcalm in Quebec in 1959, when he saw fans screaming and knocking in the window, forcing him to exit through the roof, escorted by police officers. “That evening, the police chief drove me back to the hotel and forbade me to go out because I was causing riots, the girls broke restaurant windows when they saw me”, he said. he told The Canadian Press in 2009.
If these scenes of adoration have earned him later mockery from some comedians, his notoriety has never weakened over the years, and the honors have not dried up.
In 2009, Michel Louvain received the Medal of the National Assembly for his 52-year career and his social involvement with the elderly. In 2014, artists, including Jean-François Breau, Paul Daraîche, Mario Pelchat, Daniel Lavoie and René Simard, performed new versions of his greatest hits on the tribute album They sing Leuven, while a prize was awarded to him simultaneously by ADISQ for his entire career.
The following year, 2015, he was also made a Member of the Order of Canada. “It’s a great recognition; it is to be part of the elite, in addition, he had declared then. I have received medals, I have been decorated for the last four or five years, and I have a street that bears my name in my hometown – it was quite an honor too – but to be received from there ‘Order of Canada, there …’
When he launched his album Gentleman Crooner, in 2015, Michel Louvain had sworn in an interview with Press that, unlike his idol who had inspired the opus, Tony Bennett, he would stop taking the stage when he was no longer able to “give his full performance”. And until the very end, the singer with incomparable charisma will have lost neither the pleasure of singing nor the talent of attracting crowds, his last Montreal show, at the Cabaret du Casino de Montréal, in October 2019, having, without surprise, once again sold out.
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