Pierre Garand (born 26 June 1972), known by his stage name Garou (a diminutive of his last name "Garand"), is a Canadian singer and entertainer from

Sherbrooke Sherbrooke ( ; ) is a city in southern Quebec, Canada. It is at the confluence of the Saint-François and Magog rivers in the heart of the Estrie administrative region. Sherbrooke is also the name of a territory equivalent to a regional cou ...

Québec 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 thirte ...

. He is known for his work in the musical

Notre-Dame de Paris Notre-Dame de Paris (; meaning "Our Lady of Paris"), referred to simply as Notre-Dame, is a Middle Ages#Art and architecture, medieval Catholic cathedral on the Île de la Cité (an island in the Seine River), in the 4th arrondissement of Paris ...

(playing Quasimodo in both the original French and English casts) and the No. 1 hits " Belle", "

Seul Simple End User Linux is an advocacy group that promotes Linux programs in education and science. SEUL also hosts numerous free software projects and efforts, such as the WorldForge Project's website. The SEUL/Edu project seeks to further the use ...

", "

Sous le vent "Sous le vent" (meaning ''under the wind'' and '' leeward'', ) is a duet between Garou and Celine Dion, released on 29 October 2001. It is the third single from Garou's 2000 album, '' Seul''. "Sous le vent" was also included on Dion's 2005 great ...

", and " La Rivière de notre enfance".

Profile

Garou was born in Canada. Garou began playing the guitar at the age of three at the encouragement of his father (he also plays piano and trumpet). He went on to serve in the military and started a band in 1992 called the Untouchables. In 1997, he was discovered by

Luc Plamondon Luc Plamondon, OC, CQ (b. March 2, 1942 in Saint-Raymond, Quebec), is a French-Canadian lyricist and music executive. He is best known for his work on the musicals ''Starmania'' and ''Notre-Dame de Paris''. He is the brother of Louis Plamon ...

while singing American

blues Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the ...

tunes in a Sherbrooke bar. He was drafted by Plamondon to play the role of Quasimodo in his musical

, which made him a star in France and propelled his career into action. He would play the role of Quasimodo for 3 years. His first album ''

'' became the best-selling French album of 2001 and remains one of the best-selling French albums of all time, achieving 2 million sales in Europe and going three times platinum in Canada. He continued his string of hits with a ''

live album An album is a collection of audio recordings issued on compact disc (CD), vinyl, audio tape, or another medium such as digital distribution. Albums of recorded sound were developed in the early 20th century as individual 78 rpm records c ...

'' and his sophomore effort '' Reviens'' in 2003. Sales for his third album '' Garou'' remained strong and he released his English crossover '' Piece of My Soul'' in 2008. The album debuted at No. 2 in Canada and No. 3 in France. Despite this, the album became his first album in France not to reach platinum status although it became his best-selling album in North America in seven years. His next album, '' Gentleman cambrioleur'' features cover songs in French and English and became his first album to miss the top five in France, where it modestly peaked at No. 35, staying on the charts for 17 weeks. He released ''Version Intégrale'' in 2010 which became another Top 40 hit in France and Canada. Garou performed the

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 ...

song "Un peu plus haut, un peu plus loin" (A Little Higher, A Little Farther) at the

2010 Winter Olympics opening ceremony The opening ceremony of the 2010 Winter Olympics was held on February 12, 2010, beginning at 6:00 pm PST (02:00 UTC, February 13) at BC Place Stadium in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. This was the first Olympic opening ceremony to ...

Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the city, up from 631,486 in 2016. ...

British Columbia British Columbia (commonly abbreviated as BC) is the westernmost province of Canada, situated between the Pacific Ocean and the Rocky Mountains. It has a diverse geography, with rugged landscapes that include rocky coastlines, sandy beaches, for ...

. He has also performed at the charity event

Les Enfoirés Les Enfoirés (, 'The Tossers' or 'The Bastards') is the name given to the singers and performers in the yearly charity concert for the Restaurants du Cœur The Restaurants du Cœur (literally ''Restaurants of the Heart'' but meaning ''Restau ...

for the past 19 years. In 2011, he was cast as the lead role Zark in the musical

Zarkana ''Zarkana'' was a Cirque du Soleil stage production written and directed by François Girard. It began as a touring show in 2011 and was converted to a resident show in Las Vegas in late 2012. It premiered at Radio City Music Hall in New York C ...

Cirque du Soleil Cirque du Soleil (, ; "Circus of the Sun" or "Sun Circus") is a Canadian entertainment company and the largest contemporary circus producer in the world. Located in the inner-city area of Saint-Michel, it was founded in Baie-Saint-Paul on 16 ...

in New York. His latest effort ''

Rhythm and Blues Rhythm and blues, frequently abbreviated as R&B or R'n'B, is a genre of popular music that originated in African-American communities in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly ...

'' became his highest-peaking album in four years. It is his second covers album and pays tribute to classic R&B music. Garou (Pierre Garand) - 20090317-01

He hosted the first two editions of ''Destination Eurovision'', the selection show to choose the French entry for the

Eurovision Song Contest The Eurovision Song Contest (), sometimes abbreviated to ESC and often known simply as Eurovision, is an international songwriting competition organised annually by the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), featuring participants representing pr ...

, for France 2.

Collaborations

Garou has become well known for his collaborations. He has worked with Luc Plamondon in Notre-dame de Paris. The single " Belle" was lifted from the musical and stayed atop the French charts for a record-breaking 18 weeks. The single remained the most successful song in French history until 2009. In 2000, he had a successful duet with Celine Dion. "

" became his third number one single in France. In 2004 he worked with

Michel Sardou Michel Charles Sardou (; born 26 January 1947) is a French singer and occasional actor. He is known not only for his love songs ("La maladie d'amour", "Je vais t'aimer"), but also for songs dealing with various social and political issues, su ...

for his fourth and final No. 1 single, " La Rivière de notre enfance". The following year he appeared with 15-year-old singer Marilou on "Tu es comme ça." He has also worked with several popular songwriters, including

Jean-Jacques Goldman Jean-Jacques Goldman (; born 11 October 1951) is a French singer-songwriter and music record producer. He is hugely popular in the French-speaking world. Since the death of Johnny Hallyday in 2017 he has been the highest grossing living French ...

and

Pascal Obispo Pascal Michel Obispo (; born 8 January 1965) is a French singer-songwriter. Biography Pascal Obispo, son of Max Obispo (a former Bordeaux Girondins football player of Basque origin) and Nicole Guérin (originally from Angers), was born on 8 J ...

. For his first album in English, Garou collaborated with some of the biggest names in music. The single "Stand Up" was written by Rob Thomas. He also sang the song " First Day of My Life", which was a big hit all over Europe in 2006 for former Spice Girl Melanie C, written by Guy Chambers and

Enrique Iglesias Enrique Miguel Iglesias Preysler (; (born 8 May 1975) is a Spanish singer and songwriter. He started his recording career in the mid-1990s on the Mexican indie label Fonovisa and became the bestselling Spanish-language act of the decade. By th ...

Personal life

Born in the town of Sherbrooke, Quebec, Pierre "Garou" Garand was exposed to music from an early age. He began to learn guitar at the age of three and soon pursued other instruments; such as trumpet, piano and the organ. Garou has a daughter, Emelie (born July 7, 2001), with his ex-girlfriend, Ulrika, a former model. After they broke up he dated a former Yemeni singer and entertainer Arwa Jassem known as Lahlouba. From 2007 to June 2010 he dated French singer Lorie. Garou is a member of the

charity ensemble since 1999."Garou"
(in French). ''Enfoires.com''. Retrieved 23 February 2017.

Discography

* ''

'' (2000) * '' Reviens'' (2003) * '' Garou'' (2006) * '' Piece of My Soul'' (2008) * '' Gentleman cambrioleur'' (2009) * ''

Version intégrale ''Version intégrale'' is the sixth studio album by Canadian singer Garou, and his seventh album overall. Track list #"J'avais besoin d'être là" — 3:57 (Jacques Veneruso) #"Version intégrale" — 3:37 (Marc Dupré) #"Je resterai le même" ...

'' (2010) * ''

'' (2012) * '' Au milieu de ma vie'' (2013) * '' It's Magic (France) / Xmas Blues (Canada)'' (2014) * ''

Soul City In many religious and philosophical traditions, there is a belief that a soul is "the immaterial aspect or essence of a human being". Etymology The Modern English noun ''soul'' is derived from Old English ''sāwol, sāwel''. The earliest attes ...

'' (2019) * ''Garou joue Dassin'' (2022)

References

External links

*
Biography of Garou
from

Radio France Internationale Radio France Internationale, usually referred to as RFI, is the state-owned international radio broadcaster of France. With 37.2 million listeners in 2014, it is one of the most-listened-to international radio stations in the world, along with ...