This music icon passed away peacefully in her sleep at the Verdun Hospital Center in Montreal, Productions Martin Leclerc announced.
At the beginning of April, the singer was hospitalized urgently for treatment for esophageal cancer.
The family, friends and colleagues of Mr. Louvain would like to thank the doctors and nursing staff of the Verdun hospital for their welcome, the care provided and their many attentions.
, wrote the agency in a press release.
In the letter, it is indicated that Michel Louvain is survived by his spouse of the past 25 years as well as his three sisters, Thérèse, Ginette and Lucie.
A life in song
The artist has charmed his audience without fail for more than 60 years. At 83, elegant and straight, well-groomed hair and a resplendent smile, the crooner was still singing sold out, making nostalgia a great art.
Singing is my drug, it’s my life.
This was all the more true as he began to sing in public by joining the choir of a church in Thetford Mines, where he was born on July 12, 1937 under the name of Michel Poulin.
The family then lives with difficulty on the salary of a miner of a father who deprives himself of lunch to allow Michel and his six brothers and sisters to eat.
In spite of everything, we sing at the Poulins’; the father in the church, and the brother in the halls of the region. Michel knows all the lyrics to his songs.
He is a window dresser in a local store and, in the evening, he accompanies his brother André-Roch. He was 17 when he began to do shows on Friday evenings in parish halls and inns in the region.
His father then allows him to “go up” to Sherbrooke, where he sings six evenings a week at the Hotel Union.
At 20, he was hired as master of ceremonies
in a hotel in Laval.
We notice it, and not just a little.
A producer makes him record his first hit, Buenas noches me amor, which made the young ladies panic at the Gala des splendeurs at the Colisée de Québec in 1958.
Michel Louvain when he was master of ceremonies at the Chez Gérard cabaret in Quebec City, in 1958.
Photo: Radio-Canada
The following year, he moved to the major leagues: the renowned Chez Gérard cabaret in Quebec City and the prominent Montreal cabarets such as Mocambo and Casa Loma.
From there, his career took off dramatically: from the early twenties, his popularity was such that his public appearances triggered riots.
At the Palais Montcalm, he is taken out through the roof to descend the large ladder of the firefighters… their first fire of its kind undoubtedly.
Extract from the program À vous l ‘Antenne, broadcast on September 29, 1963
The successes follow each otherIn addition to this, you need to know more about it. (New window)In addition to this, you need to know more about it. and the register of civil status combines Sylvie, Lison and Louise, these women to whom he has dedicated songs.
Michel Poulin himself became Michel Louvain, a name he took from a restaurant sign near the bus station in Montreal.
A name that sounds good for a charming singer. And who sounds better than Michel Pou-leye-ne
in the mouth of an English-speaking announcer, as the singer explained.
Fans always
At the end of the 1960s, while the stars of yé-yé reoriented their careers, Michel Louvain stayed the course.
Her love songs don’t fade and her fans are still here.
In 1976, The lady in blue enters his life. And she will stay there. It is present in every show. I would sing The lady in blue for two hours of time, that would be the show. That would be the show
, said the singer, laughing.
Michel Louvain: after 60 years of career, “the public is still there”
Photo: Radio-Canada
Despite decades of sold-out shows, walks and dates, his audience ages, like him, but never lets go. He even has a hard core of female admirers who will be featured, in 2008, in Claude Demers’ documentary titled The ladies in blue.
Invited to Refuge Show, Michel Louvain will have the audacity to interpret The lady in blue with… Éric Lapointe, whose mother loved the song.
Michel Louvain’s mother said that her son was born under a lucky star. And she shone particularly strong, the singer having produced forty albums during his career.
Alongside this career as a singer, Michel Louvain remained present in the cultural space thanks to television: from 1963, he hosted several shows on Télé-Métropole – he was elected Mr. Radio-Television
at the 1965 Artists’ Gala.
Twenty years later, still popular, he animates the daily In a good mood, at TVA, for five years, and won several MetroStar public prizes. He moved to Radio-Canada in 1994 for another daily, Leuven à la carte, which he led for two years, from Sainte-Foy.
He won his first Félix prize in 2008 for the best anthology. In 2014, the entire artistic community paid tribute to him at the ADISQ Gala.
Tribute to Michel Louvain
Decorated with the Medal of Honor of the National Assembly in 2009 and member of the Order of Canada in 2015, Michel Louvain proudly wore his insignia. Pinned to the lapel of his jacket, the two decorations enhanced the smile and elegance of this gentleman.
Many honors have been awarded to him, especially for his involvement in the fight against muscular dystrophy. An affable man, always smiling, Michel Louvain has also lent his notoriety to other social causes, such as the General Hospital of Quebec and the Assistance to the Seniors.
During the pandemic, he, like other personalities, recorded a message of encouragement that seniors received over the phone.
And the singer’s agenda promised to be well stocked for the post-pandemic: he was to begin in September 2021, at the age of 84, a tour to share his 32nd album, The good life, released in 2019, on which he performs songs chosen by his audience.
This tour would have taken him, during the fall and the following spring, to several regions of Quebec, starting with his hometown, Thetford Mines.