Raymond Lévesque (October 7, 1928 – February 15, 2021) was a Canadian singer-songwriter and poet from Quebec.
One of the pioneers of the ''
chansonnier
A chansonnier ( ca, cançoner, oc, cançonièr, Galician and pt, cancioneiro, it, canzoniere or ''canzoniéro'', es, cancionero) is a manuscript or printed book which contains a collection of chansons, or polyphonic and monophonic settings o ...
'' tradition in Quebec, he was best known for writing "
Quand les hommes vivront d'amour", one of the most famous pop standards in
French-language popular music.
[
]
Early life
Lévesque was 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 ...
on October 7, 1928. He learned piano under Rodolphe Mathieu
Joseph Rodolphe Mathieu (10 July 1890 – 29 June 1962) was a Canadian composer, pianist, writer on music, and music educator. ''The Canadian Encyclopedia'' states, "Considered too avant-garde for his time because of Debussy's influence on his ...
and drama under Madame Audet.[ Shortly after, he met his wife and they married soon after. Inspired by the work of ]Charles Trenet
Louis Charles Augustin Georges Trenet (; 18 May 1913 – 19 February 2001) was a renowned French singer-songwriter who composed both the music and the lyrics to nearly a thousand songs over a career that lasted more than 60 years. These include ...
,["RAYMOND LÉVESQUE (1928 – …)"]
''Star Québec'', March 31, 2013. he began writing songs in the 1940s and started performing in various cabaret
Cabaret is a form of theatrical entertainment featuring music, song, dance, recitation, or drama. The performance venue might be a pub, a casino, a hotel, a restaurant, or a nightclub with a stage for performances. The audience, often dining or d ...
s around Montreal. He had his first significant breakthrough in 1947, when he was invited to perform several of his songs on CKAC
CKAC is a French-language radio station located in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Owned by Cogeco, the station operates as a commercial traffic information service branded as ''Radio Circulation 730''. Its studios are located at Place Bonaventure in ...
radio by Fernand Robidoux.[
]
Career
Lévesque was cohost with Colette Bonheur
Colette Bonheur (September 20, 1927 – October 10, 1966) was a singer from Montreal, Quebec.
Biography
Colette Bonheur is observed in the radio show The Phantom of the keyboard (piano) CKVL-FM (Montreal), led by Jacques Normand, Gilles Pelle ...
of the variety series ''Mes jeunes années'' on Radio-Canada
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (french: Société Radio-Canada), branded as CBC/Radio-Canada, is a Canadian public broadcaster for both radio and television. It is a federal Crown corporation that receives funding from the government. ...
from 1952 to 1954. He subsequently spent several years living in France, where he recorded for Barclay Records
Barclay is a French record company and label founded by Eddie Barclay in 1953.
Eddie Barclay was a bandleader, pianist, producer, and nightclub owner. With his wife, Nicole, who was the vocalist in his band, he started Barclay. The catalogue inc ...
and had his songs recorded by French artists such as Bourvil
André Robert Raimbourg (; 27 July 1917 – 23 September 1970), better known as André Bourvil (), and mononymously as Bourvil, was a French actor and singer best known for his roles in comedy films, most notably in his collaboration with Louis ...
, Jean Sablon
Jean Sablon (Nogent-sur-Marne 25 March 1906 – Cannes 24 February 1994) was a French singer, songwriter, composer and actor. He was one of the first French singers to immerse himself in jazz. The man behind several songs by big French and Amer ...
, Cora Vaucaire
Cora may refer to:
Science
* ''Cora'' (fungus), a genus of lichens
* ''Cora'' (damselfly), a genus of damselflies
* CorA metal ion transporter, a Mg2+ influx system
People
* Cora (name), a given name and surname
* Cora E. (born 1968), German h ...
and Eddie Constantine
Eddie Constantine (born Edward Israël Constantinowsky; October 29, 1917 – February 25, 1993) was an American singer, actor and entertainer who spent most of his career in France. He became well-known to film audiences for his portrayal of se ...
.[ During this time he wrote "Quand les hommes vivront d'amour", which was inspired by the contemporaneous ]Algerian War
The Algerian War, also known as the Algerian Revolution or the Algerian War of Independence,( ar, الثورة الجزائرية '; '' ber, Tagrawla Tadzayrit''; french: Guerre d'Algérie or ') and sometimes in Algeria as the War of 1 November ...
; first recorded by Constantine, the song has since been recorded and performed by many artists in both France and Canada.[ 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".][
After returning to Quebec in 1959, he took acting roles in several '']téléroman
A téléroman ("telenovel" or ''annual drama series'') is a genre of French-language drama television series in Canada, similar to a soap opera or a Spanish language telenovela. In France, the ''téléroman'' genre is known as feuilleton télévi ...
s'' and hosted the children's television series ''Coucou'', and cofounded a ''boîte à chansons'' called Chez Bozo with Jean-Pierre Ferland
Jean-Pierre Ferland, (born June 24, 1934, in Montreal, Quebec) is a Canadian singer and songwriter.
Life and career
Ferland began work with Radio-Canada in 1956 as an accountant, but his career there was short lived. Shortly after, he began ...
, Clémence DesRochers Clémence DesRochers OC (born 23 November 1933) is a Canadian actress, humourist, singer, and author.
Life
She was born in Sherbrooke, Quebec on 23 November 1933.
At the age of 17, she went to Montreal where she entered the normal school. She the ...
, Hervé Brousseau
Hervé is a French language, French masculine given name of Breton language, Breton origin, from the name of the 6th-century Breton Saint Hervé. The common latinization of the name is Herveus (also ''Haerveus''), an early (8th-century) latinizati ...
, André Gagnon
André Gagnon (2 August 1936 – 3 December 2020) was a Canadian pianist, composer, conductor, arranger, and actor, known for his fusion of classical and pop styles,Jean-Pierre Thiollet, ''88 notes pour piano solo'', Neva Editions, 2015, p.16 ...
and Claude Léveillée Claude may refer to:
__NOTOC__ People and fictional characters
* Claude (given name), a list of people and fictional characters
* Claude (surname), a list of people
* Claude Lorrain (c. 1600–1682), French landscape painter, draughtsman and etcher ...
. In 1968, he also began to write poetry and plays, and became politically active in the Quebec separatist
The Quebec sovereignty movement (french: Mouvement souverainiste du Québec) is a political movement whose objective is to achieve the sovereignty of Quebec, a province of Canada since 1867, including in all matters related to any provision of ...
movement.
Later life
Lévesque received a lifetime achievement award from the Prix Félix
Prix was an American power pop band formed in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1975 by Tommy Hoehn and Jon Tiven. The group ended up primarily as a studio project. Its recordings were produced by Tiven along with former Big Star member Chris Bell, who als ...
in 1980.[ By the mid-1980s, Lévesque had suffered profound hearing loss and was diagnosed as ]deaf
Deafness has varying definitions in cultural and medical contexts. In medical contexts, the meaning of deafness is hearing loss that precludes a person from understanding spoken language, an Audiology, audiological condition. In this context it ...
. He abandoned music but continued to write, publishing several further works of poetry, fiction and political satire.
Lévesque was awarded the Prix Denise-Pelletier
The Prix Denise-Pelletier is an award by the Government of Quebec that is part of the Prix du Québec, given to individuals for an outstanding career in the performing arts. It is awarded to a creator, performer, stage-craftsman or person who ha ...
in 1997. He was named a winner of the Governor General's Performing Arts Award
A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...
in 2005, but declined the honour due to his sovereignist views.
In 2016, a new song written by Lévesque, titled "Les jours d'amour", was recorded and released by singer Marie-Josée Longchamps. He died on February 15, 2021, 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 ...
. He was 92, and had been diagnosed with COVID-19
Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) is a contagious disease caused by a virus, the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The first known case was COVID-19 pandemic in Hubei, identified in Wuhan, China, in December ...
during 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 ...
in the time leading up to his death.
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
• 1968-Médée
* 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
External links
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Levesque, Raymond
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 male 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
Prix Denise-Pelletier winners
Félix Award winners
Deaths from the COVID-19 pandemic in Canada