Damien Robitaille
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Damien Robitaille (, born June 1981) is a
Canadian Canadians () 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 their being ''C ...
musician from the village of
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,
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in the
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area, two hours north-west of
Toronto Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...
. He is a Franco-Ontarian musician whose career is mainly based in
Quebec Quebec is Canada's List of Canadian provinces and territories by area, largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, ...
, where he has lived since 2003.


Biography

Damien Robitaille's father was Francophone, and his mother was Anglophone. Robitaille started playing the piano when he was eight years old. Later in his childhood he learned to play such instruments as the trumpet, guitar and violin. At fifteen, he began to compose his songs in English. At eighteen, following the advice of his music teacher, Damien Robitaille composed his first three songs in French and recorded his first album. He studied classical music at the
Wilfrid Laurier University Wilfrid Laurier University (commonly referred to as WLU or simply Laurier) is a Public university, public university in Ontario, Canada, with campuses in Waterloo, Ontario, Waterloo, Brantford, Ontario, Brantford and Milton, Ontario, Milton. The ...
in Waterloo, where he was a member of the rock band ''The Mezameeze'' (made to sound like "Mes Amis" in French, meaning "My Friends"). The band performed Damien's French compositions and won the Battle of the Bands university music competition. Halfway through his university career he was a finalist in Ontario Pop, a Franco-Ontarian competition, in which he won a scholarship to attend a one-year program at "L'École Nationale de la Chanson de Granby" in Granby, Quebec. In 2002, Damien Robitaille released his first album, Damien. In 2004, Robitaille, a young poetic musician, performed as a finalist at the ''Festival de la chanson de Granby'' (Granby Song Festival) in Granby,
Quebec Quebec is Canada's List of Canadian provinces and territories by area, largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, ...
. This festival, as well as the
Francouvertes Francouvertes is an annual music festival in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, which spotlights emerging francophone and indigenous musical artists from Quebec. At the end of each year's festival, three finalists are named, following which a jury presents ...
festival in
Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...
,
Quebec Quebec is Canada's List of Canadian provinces and territories by area, largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, ...
where he won first prize, helped Robitaille become a successful musician in Quebec. That same year, he opened for Jim Corcoran in
Sudbury Sudbury may refer to: Places Australia * Sudbury Reef, Queensland Canada * Greater Sudbury, Ontario ** Sudbury (federal electoral district) ** Sudbury (provincial electoral district) ** Sudbury Airport ** Sudbury Basin, a meteorite impact cra ...
. In the fall, Damien Robitaille participated in the
Radio-Canada Radio-Canada may refer to: * CBC/Radio-Canada, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation *Ici Radio-Canada Télé, the CBC's main French-language television network *Ici Radio-Canada Première Ici Radio-Canada Première (formerly Première Chaîne) i ...
show Le Garage, hosted by
Véronic DiCaire Véronic DiCaire (born in Embrun, Ontario, Canada) is a Canadian Franco-Ontarian singer and impressionist.
, which brought together emerging artists from Ontario, Quebec and the Outaouais region. Also, in 2004, he was a finalist at the Festival de la chanson de Saint-Ambroise, where he won six awards. He then moved to
Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...
, where he has lived ever since.  Robitaille performs the vocals, guitar and piano for all of his songs. In March 2005, his album Damien Robitaille was selected at the Gala des Prix Trille Or as "Discovery of the Year". That same year, he won several awards, including first prize at the
Francouvertes Francouvertes is an annual music festival in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, which spotlights emerging francophone and indigenous musical artists from Quebec. At the end of each year's festival, three finalists are named, following which a jury presents ...
de Montréal. It was the first time a francophone artist outside Quebec won that prize. He also won the
SOCAN The Society of Composers, Authors and Music Publishers of Canada (SOCAN) is a Canadian performance rights organization that represents the performing rights of more than 175,000 songwriters, composers and music publishers. The organization collect ...
song award. In 2006, Robitaille released his first full-length album titled ''L'homme qui me ressemble'' (The Man Who Looks Like Me). The title is a reference to the duality of being a performer having to take on a persona, which is a large part of Robitaille's act. He travels in Europe and participates in several French-Canadian festivals. He also took part in the tribute show to Plume Latraverse (Chapeau à Plume) and the tenth-anniversary concert of the Francouvertes. At the end of the year, he was named "Sacré talent" by the radio station
Espace Musique Ici Musique (stylized ICI Musique) is the French-language music radio service of Canada's national public broadcaster, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (''Société Radio-Canada''). It is the French equivalent of the English CBC Music, alt ...
(
Radio-Canada Radio-Canada may refer to: * CBC/Radio-Canada, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation *Ici Radio-Canada Télé, the CBC's main French-language television network *Ici Radio-Canada Première Ici Radio-Canada Première (formerly Première Chaîne) i ...
). The album L'Homme qui me ressemble received four nominations at the
ADISQ ADISQ (; ) is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to support the independent record labels, independent music industry in Quebec. It was created in 1978. Since 1979, it has also organized an annual awards ceremony for musicians and singer ...
in 2007. The record also received a nomination for "best album" at the
Juno Award The Juno Awards (stylized as JUNOS), or simply known as the Junos, are awards presented by Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences, the Canadian Academy of Recording Arts and Sciences to recognize outstanding achievements in Canada's mu ...
s in 2008. On September 8, 2009, he launched his album ''Homme Autonome''. The album went on to be nominated eight times for the Gala des Prix Trille Or in January 2011 and won six awards. In 2010, he gave two musical performances during the Vancouver Olympic Games ceremonies. The album Homme autonome then received 8 nominations at the ADISQ in 2010, including Songwriter of the Year, Contemporary Folk Album of the Year, Singer-Songwriter of the Year, Music Video of the Year (On est né nu), Show of the Year and Writer of the Year (he won this award). Damien Robitaille released a new album in 2012, Omniprésent. In 2013, he received eight more nominations at the Gala des Prix Trille Or for this new album and his website. On November 16, 2016, he released the single "Tout feu tou flamme". He is released under
Audiogram An audiogram is a graph that shows the audible threshold for standardized frequencies as measured by an audiometer. The Y axis represents intensity measured in decibels (dB) and the X axis represents frequency measured in hertz (Hz). The thresho ...
. The fifth album Univers parallèles (2017) is produced with Carl Bastien and Michel Bélanger as artistic directors and will be followed in 2019 by an album of Christmas songs, entitled Bientôt ce sera Noël (including seven original tracks and three covers), produced with the same team. In 2020, during the Covid-19 pandemic, he reinvented himself by posting a series of videos on social networks of himself performing multiple compositions in his home. The videos have been a big hit all over the world. His cover of the song
Pump Up the Jam "Pump Up the Jam" is the opening track on Belgian act Technotronic's first album, '' Pump Up the Jam: The Album'' (1989). It was released as a single on 18 August 1989 by Swanyard and SBK Records and was a worldwide hit, reaching number two in t ...
by the band
Technotronic Technotronic was a Belgian electronic music project formed in 1987 by Jo Bogaert and best known for their 1989 single, " Pump Up the Jam", which features vocals by Ya Kid K. The song peaked at No. 2 on the ''Billboard'' Hot 100 in the United ...
went viral with over 10 million views on
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. The video was reshared by former basketball player
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, actor
Elijah Wood Elijah Jordan Wood (born January 28, 1981) is an American actor and producer. Wood made his film debut with a minor part in ''Back to the Future Part II'' (1989) at the age of eight and achieved recognition in the early 1990s as a child acto ...
and star
Jennifer Garner Jennifer Anne Garner (born April 17, 1972) is an American actress. Born in Houston, Texas and raised in Charleston, West Virginia, Garner studied theater at Denison University and began acting as an understudy for the Roundabout Theatre Company ...
. His 200th song of the day was
We Are the World "We Are the World" is a charity single recorded by the supergroup USA for Africa in 1985. It was written by Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie and produced by Quincy Jones for the album '' We Are the World''. With sales in excess of 20 milli ...
, a song that features 21 artists in the original version. As part of the School culture days of 2020, he offered the song Il me semble in a karaoke version so that all the students of Quebec and the Francophonie could sing in together.


Other projects


Radio

During the 2011 summer season, Damien Robitaille hosted two radio shows on
ICI Musique Ici Musique (stylized ICI Musique) is the French-language music radio service of Canada's national public broadcaster, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (''Société Radio-Canada''). It is the French equivalent of the English CBC Music, altho ...
: Jamais trop tard pour les standards, which highlighted pop and jazz classics from the 1930s to the 1950s, and La Chaîne musicale, which brought together singer-songwriters to present their musical world.


TV

Ma caravane au Canada, broadcast in 2014 on TV5, featured Damien Robitaille and Vincent Gratton introducing francophones from different regions of Canada. Damien Robitaille also hosted the show Voyage de chien on the Unis TV channel (filmed in Ontario and Manitoba) with his dog Suki (an American Akita) in 2016. The program showcased the natural encounters and events that occur when you have a dog. He has also performed three of his songs: '' Mambo Mètissè'','' Homme Autonome'', and '' Bienvenue a Longueiul'' during two different episodes of the quiz show *100 Gènies.


Gurdeep Pandher

During the 2021 summer, Damien Robitaille collaborated with dance artist and educator Gurdeep Pandher of the Yukon, and their collab video registered 4 million views.


Discography

*''Damien'' (2000) - Independently released album which Damien recorded with the help of his high school music teacher *''Damien Robitaille'' (2002) - Mini-album featuring tracks from Francouvertes *'' L'homme qui me ressemble'' (2006) *''Homme Autonome'' (2009) *''Omniprésent'' (2012) *''Univers parallèles'' (2017) *''Bientôt ce sera Noël'' (2019)


Filmography

*
2011 The year marked the start of a Arab Spring, series of protests and revolutions throughout the Arab world advocating for democracy, reform, and economic recovery, later leading to the depositions of world leaders in Tunisia, Egypt, and Yemen ...
: '' La Sacrée'' de Dominic Desjardins : Denis Maurice *
2013 2013 was the first year since 1987 to contain four unique digits (a span of 26 years). 2013 was designated as: *International Year of Water Cooperation *International Year of Quinoa Events January * January 5 – 2013 Craig, Alask ...
: '' Un rêve américain'', documentaire de Bruno Boulianne


Nominations


Juno Awards

Damien Robitaille was nominated for two Juno Awards in the "Francophone Album of the Year" category in 2008 for L'Homme qui me ressemble and in 2014 Omniprésent.


Gala des prix Trille Or

This biennial event is organized to recognize the talents of musicians and sound artists from Ontario and Western Canada. In 2015, Damien Robitaille hosted the edition.


References


External links


Damien Robitaille's Official Site (In French)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Robitaille, Damien 1981 births Date of birth missing (living people) Living people Franco-Ontarian people Canadian pop singers Musicians from Simcoe County Audiogram (label) artists French-language singers of Canada 21st-century Canadian male singers Canadian male singer-songwriters Félix Award winners 21st-century Canadian singer-songwriters