Joe Bocan is the stage name of Johanne Beauchamp (born September 8, 1957), a
Canadian
Canadians (french: Canadiens) are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of ...
pop singer and actress from
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 ...
theatre
Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of performing art that uses live performers, usually actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The perform ...
,"She's no ordinary Joe; Singer Bocan could revive Quebec's pop scene". ''
Montreal Gazette
The ''Montreal Gazette'', formerly titled ''The Gazette'', is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Three other daily English-language newspapers shuttered at various times during the second half of th ...
'', November 22, 1985. she later began performing as a folk singer and won an award from the ''Festival international de la chanson de Granby'' in 1983."Fresh voice in Quebec music". ''
The Globe and Mail
''The Globe and Mail'' is a Canadian newspaper printed in five cities in western and central Canada. With a weekly readership of approximately 2 million in 2015, it is Canada's most widely read newspaper on weekdays and Saturdays, although it ...
'', January 22, 1986.
By 1985, she was performing a regular show, ''Paradoxale'', at Le Milieu in
Montreal
Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple ...
. The show incorporated some of the multimedia performance techniques then being used by contemporaneous artists such as Peter Gabriel,
Kate Bush
Catherine Bush (born 30 July 1958) is an English singer, songwriter, record producer and dancer. In 1978, at the age of 19, she topped the UK Singles Chart for four weeks with her debut single " Wuthering Heights", becoming the first female ...
,
Laurie Anderson
Laurel Philips Anderson (born June 5, 1947), known as Laurie Anderson, is an American avant-garde artist, composer, musician, and film director whose work spans performance art, pop music, and multimedia projects. Initially trained in violin and ...
and
Jane Siberry
Jane Siberry ( ; ; born 12 October 1955) is a Canadian singer-songwriter, known for such hits as " Mimi on the Beach", "I Muse Aloud", " One More Colour" and "Calling All Angels". She performed the theme song to the television series ''Maniac M ...
. In 1986, she was given her first television special on Télévision de Radio-Canada, and was one of the performers at Canada's first major benefit concert for
HIV/AIDS
Human immunodeficiency virus infection and acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (HIV/AIDS) is a spectrum of conditions caused by infection with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), a retrovirus. Following initial infection an individual ...
alongside
Michel Louvain
Michel Louvain, (July 12, 1937April 14, 2021) was a Canadian singer most popular in the 1960s and 1970s.
,
Peter Pringle
Peter Pringle (born September 7, 1945) is a Canadian musician and television personality, ...
, Denny Christianson and
Les Grands Ballets Canadiens
Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montréal (GBCM) is a ballet company based in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. A creative and repertory company, it performs works that reflect the diverse trends of contemporary ballet.
History
Les Grands Ballets Canadien ...
. During this era, she also had a regular acting role on the Quebec children's television series ''Minibus''. She won a
Félix Award
The Félix Award (french: Trophée Félix or Prix Félix) is an award, given by the ''Association du disque, de l'industrie du spectacle québécois'' ( ADISQ) on an annual basis to artists working in the music and humor industry in the Canadian ...
for Best Pop Show in 1986 for ''Paradoxale''.
Recording career
Her self-titled debut album was released in 1988, and spawned singles including "Paradoxale", "On parle des yeux" and "Repartir à zéro". She led the 1989 Félix nominations with 10 nods, but won only the award for best pop-rock show that year. The following year, she won the Félix for Best Female Singer.
She followed up with ''Les Désordres'' in 1991,"Bocan sets out to reprise debut success; New album is more radical that first: singer". ''
Montreal Gazette
The ''Montreal Gazette'', formerly titled ''The Gazette'', is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Three other daily English-language newspapers shuttered at various times during the second half of th ...
'', September 19, 1991. and had another hit single with "Apocalypso". In this era, she continued to take acting roles in television series such as ''Piège infernal'' and ''La Misère des riches''. While filming ''La Misère des riches'', she met musician and actor Charles Biddle, Jr., the son of legendary Canadian jazz musician
Charlie Biddle
Charles Reed Biddle, (July 28, 1926 – February 5, 2003) was an American-Canadian jazz bassist. He lived most of his life in Montreal, organizing and performing in jazz music events.
Early life and education
Biddle was born and grew up in ...
; they soon became a couple and later married.
She released two further albums and a greatest hits compilation in the 1990s, and the children's album ''La Comtesse d'Harmonia fait le tour du monde'' in 2001. Her further acting roles included the films ''Meurtre en musique'' and ''
The Ideal Man
''The Ideal Man'' (french: L'Homme idéal) is a Canadian romantic comedy film, directed by George Mihalka and released in 1996. The film stars Marie-Lise Pilote as Lucie, a successful magazine editor who feels her biological clock ticking as she h ...
(L'Homme idéal)'', and the children's television series ''Ramdam''.
Following ''La Comtesse d'Harmonia'', she left the music business for several years, teaching theatre at the École des Arts de la Scène in Joliette. She returned to music in the 2010s with a second children's album, ''La Comtesse d'Harmonia - Pour faire danser la terre'', in 2011 and a new adult pop album, ''La loupe'', in 2013.
A longtime ally of the
LGBT
' is an initialism that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender. In use since the 1990s, the initialism, as well as some of its common variants, functions as an umbrella term for sexuality and gender identity.
The LGBT term ...
community in Quebec, she debuted in 2015 as a radio host on
Montreal
Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple ...
's new LGBT-focused radio station
CHRF
CHRF (980 kHz) was a French language commercial AM radio station in Montreal, Quebec, Canada.Marie Carmen and
Marie Denise Pelletier
Marie Denise Pelletier (born 3 April 1960) is a francophone Canadian singer. She served as President of Artisti, a copyright collective for music artists operated by Quebec's l'Union des artistes (UDA).
Biography
While studying literature and ...
announced the joint concert tour ''Pour une histoire d'un soir'', although the tour was delayed by the
COVID-19 pandemic in Quebec
The COVID-19 pandemic in Quebec is part of an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), a novel infectious disease caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). Until 2021, Quebec had reported t ...
and instead launched in 2022. The tour won the
Félix Award
The Félix Award (french: Trophée Félix or Prix Félix) is an award, given by the ''Association du disque, de l'industrie du spectacle québécois'' ( ADISQ) on an annual basis to artists working in the music and humor industry in the Canadian ...
for Variety or Reinterpretation Concert of the Year at the
44th Félix Awards
The 43rd Félix Awards were held on November 6, 2022 to honour achievements in Quebec music. The gala was hosted by Louis-José Houde, and televised by Ici Radio-Canada Télé.
The advance ceremony announcing the winners in categories not se ...