Paul Joseph Lorieau (June 29, 1942 – July 2, 2013) was a Canadian optician who was the national anthem singer for the

Edmonton Oilers The Edmonton Oilers are a professional ice hockey team based in Edmonton. The Oilers compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Pacific Division of the Western Conference. They play their home games at Rogers Place, which ...

of the

National Hockey League The National Hockey League (NHL; french: Ligue nationale de hockey—LNH, ) is a professional ice hockey league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. It is considered to be the top ranked professional ...

from 1981 to 2011. He was of French-Canadian descent. His paternal grandparents were born in Vendée, France: his grandfather Jean Lorieau in the village of La Grossière in Boulogne in 1868, and his grandmother Célestine Auneau in the village of La Chaunière in Saint-Fulgent in 1868. Ascendance Paul Lorieau

Lorieau was born the youngest of 7 children on June 29, 1942 in

Legal, Alberta Legal is a town in the Edmonton Metropolitan Region of Alberta, Canada within Sturgeon County. It is east of Highway 2 on Highway 651, approximately north of Edmonton. Legal was established in 1894 as a Francophone community, and is named in ...

to Henri and Alexandrine Lorieau. Both of his parents had musical backgrounds, his mother playing the

violin The violin, sometimes known as a '' fiddle'', is a wooden chordophone ( string instrument) in the violin family. Most violins have a hollow wooden body. It is the smallest and thus highest-pitched instrument ( soprano) in the family in regu ...

, and his father a "natural

tenor A tenor is a type of classical male singing voice whose vocal range lies between the countertenor and baritone voice types. It is the highest male chest voice type. The tenor's vocal range extends up to C5. The low extreme for tenors is wide ...

". Around 1981 Lorieau had sent in an audition tape in a search for a new anthem singer in Edmonton at the request of Oilers media relations director Bill Tuele. Although the anthem singer at the time had already been selected, the tape from Lorieau, which had been sent in late as he had been in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

at the time, had been considered and he ultimately ended up being given the job. In response to the Canadian National Anthem being booed at the beginning of Game 5 of the 2006 NHL Western Conference Semifinals in San Jose, when playing the next game in Edmonton, the Canadian crowd responded in their own fashion. At the beginning of Game 3 between the Mighty Ducks of Anaheim and the Oilers, he sang only a few lines of "

O Canada "O Canada" (french: Ô Canada, italic=no) is the national anthem of Canada. The song was originally commissioned by Lieutenant Governor of Quebec Théodore Robitaille for the 1880 Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day ceremony; Calixa Lavallée composed the mus ...

" before letting the audience sing the rest of the song without him. This was done at all remaining Oilers home games throughout the rest of the 2006 playoffs, which included the Oilers appearance in the Stanley Cup Finals, and even at the first few Oilers home games at the beginning of the 2006–07 NHL season. On March 23, 2011, Lorieau announced that he would retire at the end of the season. On April 8, 2011 when the Oilers played their final home game of the regular season, he performed in front of a sold-out Rexall Place one final time. A special

pre-game ceremony A pre-game ceremony or pre-match ceremony is an on-field ceremony occurring before a sporting event. Such ceremonies may celebrate a past event, honour a retiring athlete, commemorate a deceased athlete, or promote a cause. Celebrating past event ...

was held to honour the Oilers longest-standing anthem singer and to give Oil Country a chance to salute Paul for 30 great years. Upon Lorieau's retirement, there was no official replacement for the Oilers' national anthem singer position until 2013, when

Robert Clark Robert, Bob, or Bobby Clark may refer to: Television and film *Robert Clark (actor) (born 1987), American-born Canadian television actor *Bob Clark (1939–2007), Canadian filmmaker * Bob Clark (television reporter), retired American television re ...

was named as the singing voice of the Edmonton Oilers. On July 2, 2013, Lorieau died in hospice of metastatic esophageal cancer, surrounded by his family.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Lorieau, Paul 1942 births 2013 deaths 20th-century Canadian male singers Canadian male singers Canadian optometrists Deaths from cancer in Alberta Edmonton Oilers personnel Franco-Albertan people People from Sturgeon County