Jean-Marc Pisapia (born 13 November 1957), is a Canadian singer-songwriter and director. He is best known as the

frontman The lead vocalist in popular music is typically the member of a group or band whose voice is the most prominent melody in a performance where multiple voices may be heard. The lead singer sets their voice against the accompaniment parts of the ...

of the new wave band The Box. As a director, he was nominated for Best Video at the

1989 Juno Awards The Juno Awards of 1989, representing Canadian music industry achievements of the previous year, were awarded on 12 March 1989 in Toronto at a ceremony in the O'Keefe Centre. André-Philippe Gagnon was the host for the ceremonies, which were broa ...

Early life

Born in

Montreal Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-most populous city in Canada and List of towns in Quebec, most populous city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian ...

, Pisapia learned piano from the age of four and grew up listening to

progressive rock Progressive rock (shortened as prog rock or simply prog; sometimes conflated with art rock) is a broad genre of rock music that developed in the United Kingdom and United States through the mid- to late 1960s, peaking in the early 1970s. Init ...

. He went to high school with musicians

Ivan Doroschuk Ivan Eugene Doroschuk (, ), born 9 October 1957, is an American-born Canadian musician. He is the lead vocalist and founding member of Men Without Hats, best known for the hit song "The Safety Dance". Early life Ivan Doroschuk was born on 9 ...

Men Without Hats Men Without Hats are a Canadian New wave music, new wave and synth-pop band, originally from Montreal, Quebec. Their music is characterized by the baritone voice of their lead singer Ivan Doroschuk, as well as their elaborate use of synthesizers ...

and Pascal Languirand of

Trans-X Trans-X is a Canadian 1980s synth band formed in Montreal, Quebec. They are known for their hit song "Living on Video" which was a worldwide hit single. History Trans-X was started by Canadian musician Pascal Languirand, previously known for ...

and went on to study architecture at University of Montreal. Pisapia's father immigrated to Canada from Naples, Italy in 1952. Pisapia has two brothers, Guy and Serge, and a sister, Christine. His older brother, Guy, was the keyboardist for the first iteration of The Box.

Career

In 1981,

frontman

invited Pisapia to be a keyboardist on their summer tour. That same year, Pisapia formed a band, originally called Checkpoint Charlie, which was renamed The Box. Pisapia serves as The Box's lead vocalist and principal lyricist. He also directed several of The Box's videos. In 1990, while directing the video for their single ''Temptation'' in

New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans
Merriam-Webster. ; french: La Nouvelle-Orléans , es, Nuev ...

, he fell off a moving truck and broke his collarbone in two places. Concerned about the money that the band would lose by being unable to complete the video shoot, he returned to work on it that same night. His work on the video for the band's single, "

Ordinary People ''Ordinary People'' is a 1980 American drama film directed by Robert Redford in his directorial debut. The screenplay by Alvin Sargent is based on the 1976 novel of the same name by Judith Guest. The film follows the disintegration of an upper ...

", earned him a nomination for Best Video at the

. After The Box's dissolution in 1992, Pisapia collaborated with bandmates Jean-Pierre Brie and Claude Thibault in writing and producing music for TV and radio commercials. Pisapia later formed his own music production company, which he named L'Affaire Dumoutier, after The Box's first hit single. Pisapia wrote and performed music for ad campaigns for such clients as

Bell Canada Bell Canada (commonly referred to as Bell) is a Canadian telecommunications company headquartered at 1 Carrefour Alexander-Graham-Bell in the borough of Verdun in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It is an ILEC (incumbent local exchange carrier) in t ...

McDonald's McDonald's Corporation is an American Multinational corporation, multinational fast food chain store, chain, founded in 1940 as a restaurant operated by Richard and Maurice McDonald, in San Bernardino, California, United States. They rechri ...

, and

General Motors The General Motors Company (GM) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automotive manufacturing company headquartered in Detroit, Michigan, United States. It is the largest automaker in the United States and ...

. While Pisapia's first language is French, he prefers performing in English. He told the ''

Toronto Star The ''Toronto Star'' is a Canadian English-language broadsheet daily newspaper. The newspaper is the country's largest daily newspaper by circulation. It is owned by Toronto Star Newspapers Limited, a subsidiary of Torstar Corporation and part ...

'' in 1986: "A lot of people sing rock in French and it seems to work very well for them. I wouldn't say it's written in the stars that you can't (sing pop in French), but that's my personal belief." He also told the paper in 1987 that he was a proponent of "international pop culture," and pointed out that popular artists of the time, such as the Norwegian band

A-ha A-ha (usually stylised as ''a-''h''a''; ) is a Norwegian synth-pop band formed in Oslo in 1982. Founded by Paul Waaktaar-Savoy (guitars and vocals), Magne Furuholmen (keyboards, guitars and vocals), and Morten Harket (lead vocals), the band ...

and the Austrian musician Falco, also produced music in English. Pisapia reformed The Box with an entirely new roster of musicians that he met in the film industry and they released their first album in 2005. The new iteration performs songs in a

style.

Personal life

Pisapia started painting in 2009 after moving from Montreal to a rural area of

Quebec Quebec ( ; )According to the Canadian government, ''Québec'' (with the acute accent) is the official name in Canadian French and ''Quebec'' (without the accent) is the province's official name in Canadian English is one of the thirtee ...

known as the

Laurentides The Laurentides () is a region of Quebec. While it is often called the Laurentians in English, the region includes only part of the Laurentian mountains. It has a total land area of and its population was 589,400 inhabitants as of the 2016 Cens ...

. He joined a collective of artists and opened two art galleries in

Mont-Tremblant Mont-Tremblant () is a city in the Laurentian Mountains of Quebec, Canada, approximately northwest of Montreal and northeast of Ottawa, Ontario. The current municipality with city status was formed in 2000. Mont-Tremblant is most famous for its ...

. Pisapia has two daughters.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Pisapia, Jean-Marc 1957 births Living people 20th-century Canadian male singers 21st-century Canadian male singers 21st-century Canadian singers Canadian male singer-songwriters Francophone Quebec people Singers from Montreal Canadian people of Italian descent 20th-century Canadian singer-songwriters 21st-century Canadian singer-songwriters