Joseph Armand Roch Voisine, (born 26 March 1963) is a Canadian singer-songwriter, actor, and radio and television host who lives 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 ...

and

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

. He writes and performs material in both English and French. He won 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 ...

for Male Vocalist of the Year in 1994. In 1997, he was made an Officer of the

Order of Canada The Order of Canada () is a Canadian state order, national order and the second-highest Award, honour for merit in the system of orders, decorations, and medals of Canada, after the Order of Merit. To coincide with the Canadian Centennial, ce ...

Beginnings

Born in

Edmundston Edmundston () is a city in Madawaska County, New Brunswick, Canada. Established in 1850, it had a population of 16,437 as of 2021. On January 1, 2023, Edmundston amalgamated with the village of Rivière-Verte, New Brunswick, Rivière-Verte and ...

New Brunswick New Brunswick is a Provinces and Territories of Canada, province of Canada, bordering Quebec to the north, Nova Scotia to the east, the Gulf of Saint Lawrence to the northeast, the Bay of Fundy to the southeast, and the U.S. state of Maine to ...

, Canada, he grew up in

Saint-Basile, New Brunswick Saint-Basile is a community in Madawaska County, New Brunswick, Canada. Formerly a separate municipality, it was amalgamated into the city of Edmundston on May 25, 1998. The 2006 Canadian Census recorded a population of 3,751. History Notable ...

and later moved to Notre-Dame-du-Lac, Quebec when he was 12. Voisine studied at École technique des métiers de Lauzon in

Lévis Lévis () is a city in eastern Quebec, Canada, located on the south shore of the St. Lawrence River, opposite Quebec City. A ferry links Old Quebec with Old Lévis, and two bridges, the Quebec Bridge and the Pierre-Laporte Bridge, connect we ...

(today Guillaume-Couture Secondary School) and at Polyvalente de Lévis (today École Pointe-Lévy). Then he continued for four years at

Cégep Limoilou Cégep Limoilou is a French-language CEGEP in the province of Quebec, situated in La Cité-Limoilou, a borough of Quebec City. Cégep Limoilou offers pre-university and technical programs, continuing education and corporate services. It has 6 ...

. He attended the

University of Ottawa The University of Ottawa (), often referred to as uOttawa or U of O, is a Official bilingualism in Canada, bilingual public research university in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. The main campus is located on directly to the northeast of Downtown Ot ...

where he graduated in 1985 with a degree in

physiotherapy Physical therapy (PT), also known as physiotherapy, is a healthcare profession, as well as the care provided by physical therapists who promote, maintain, or restore health through patient education, physical intervention, disease preventio ...

and played four seasons with the uOttawa Gee-Gees men's hockey team. Voisine aspired to be a professional ice hockey player. He had to set his plans aside when he was severely injured while playing baseball in 1981.

Career

In the summer of 1986, he had his music debut when he sang on

Canada Day Canada Day, formerly known as Dominion Day, is the national day of Canada. A Public holidays in Canada, federal statutory holiday, it celebrates the anniversary of Canadian Confederation which occurred on July 1, 1867, with the passing of the B ...

(1 July) in front of 50,000 people at la Ronde amusement park in Montreal. He also worked as presenter of music videos on ''Top Jeunesse'' on the TQS (Télévision Quatre-Saisons) private French Quebec channel. In 1989, he appeared as Dany Ross in the

CBC Television CBC Television (also known as CBC TV, or simply CBC) is a Television in Canada, Canadian English-language terrestrial television, broadcast television network owned by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, the national public broadcasting, p ...

series '' Lance et Compte (He Shoots, He Scores)''. Voisine's musical breakthrough came with his 1989 album '' Hélène'' which sold three million copies and became a major hit not only in Quebec but also in France, Belgium and Switzerland. In 1990, ''Hélène'' was awarded the Best Album prize at the Victoires de la Musique. He capitalized on his big success by releasing a bilingual French/English album ''

Double Double, The Double or Dubble may refer to: Mathematics and computing * Multiplication by 2 * Double precision, a floating-point representation of numbers that is typically 64 bits in length * A double number of the form x+yj, where j^2=+1 * A ...

'' with one CD containing all-French songs, the other all-English songs trying to position himself in both francophone and anglophone markets. After a highly successful European Tour in 1991, he was awarded France's Chevalier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, becoming the youngest artist to receive it at age 28. His second European tour culminated on 17 April 1992 at Champ-de-Mars in Paris where he sang in front of 75,000 people. The show was broadcast live on

TF1 TF1 (; standing for ''Télévision Française 1'') is a French commercial television network owned by TF1 Group, controlled by the Bouygues conglomerate. TF1's average market share of 24% makes it the most popular domestic network. TF1 is part ...

and reached 14 million viewers. In 1993, Voisine had his biggest English-language hit to date with the single and album both entitled ''I'll Always Be There'', on which he worked with

David Foster David Walter Foster (born November 1, 1949) is a Canadian record producer, composer, arranger, and musician. He has won 16 Grammy Awards from 47 nominations. His career began as a keyboardist for the pop group Skylark in the early 1970s befor ...

. The single reached number four on the Canadian music charts while the album reached number seven. Also in 1993, his wax statue was launched in

Musée Grévin The ' (; ) () is a wax museum located on the Grands Boulevards in the 9th arrondissement of Paris on the right bank of the Seine. The also has a location in Seoul. opened in 2013, and closed in 2021. History The museum was founded in 1882 by ...

in Paris. In 2004, he had a huge success with the traditional song " Jean Johnny Jean" written by Gildas Arzel. The song appeared in Voisine's album '' Coup de tête''. Over the years, he has continued alternating between recording both French and English-language albums. His French language work and concert tours have continued to enjoy success in Europe (especially France) and Quebec, while his English-language recordings are a frequent mainstay of Canadian

adult contemporary Adult contemporary music (AC) is a form of radio-played popular music, ranging from 1960s vocal and 1970s soft rock music to predominantly ballad-heavy music of the 1980s to the present day, with varying degrees of easy listening, pop, soul ...

radio. He also enjoys huge success internationally. In 2006, he took part alongside other musicians in ''L'Or de nos vies'' in a formation named Fight Aids singing a song composed by Kyo. Revenues went to Fight Aids Monaco.

Université de Moncton The Université de Moncton is a Canadian French-language university in New Brunswick. It includes campuses in Edmundston, Moncton, and Shippagan. The university was founded in 1963 following the recommendations of the royal commission on hig ...

, New Brunswick, Canada gave him an honorary doctorate in music in May 2007. In the years 2008 to 2010, he launched his ''Americana'' series recorded in

Nashville Nashville, often known as Music City, is the capital and List of municipalities in Tennessee, most populous city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the county seat, seat of Davidson County, Tennessee, Davidson County in Middle Tennessee, locat ...

Tennessee Tennessee (, ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders Kentucky to the north, Virginia to the northeast, North Carolina t ...

in tribute to American popular and country music. The third in the Americana series was dedicated to California music. In 2010 he also released the album '' Confidences'' in two separate European and Canadian editions. He was also one of the commentators for the men's hockey tournament for French television at the

2010 Winter Olympics The 2010 Winter Olympics, officially known as the XXI Olympic Winter Games () and also known as Vancouver 2010 (), were an international winter multi-sport event held from February 12 to 28, 2010 in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, with ...

in Vancouver. In 2013 he came back with an album of duos called '' Duophonique''. In 2015, he released the single "Cap Enragé" as a duo with Natasha St-Pier. He was inducted as a Chevalier de l'

Ordre des Arts et des Lettres The Order of Arts and Letters () is an order of France established on 2 May 1957 by the Minister of Culture. Its supplementary status to the was confirmed by President Charles de Gaulle in 1963. Its purpose is the recognition of significant ...

by France in 1992 and was made an Officer of the

in 1995. He was made a Member of the Order of New Brunswick in 2014.

Personal life

Roch Voisine was born in

, New Brunswick, Canada to Réal Voisine, former mayor of Notre-Dame-du-Lac, Quebec and a former English teacher, and to Zélande Robichaud, a former nurse. He grew up in

. He is the oldest of three children. His brother Marc was born in 1965, and his sister, Janice, in 1966. When Roch was four years old, Voisine's parents divorced and he moved to live with his paternal grandparents, Maurille and Dorina Racine Voisine, until he was eight, when he went to live with his father again. Roch considered his grandparents very influential on him, even as an adult. Roch moved to Notre-Dame-du-Lac when he was 12. Voisine married Myriam Saint-Jean on 21 December 2002. The couple have two sons. On 15 October 2007, Voisine's website announced his and Myriam's separation. Later on, he had a short-lived relationship with Narimane Doumandji, a public relations specialist. He had been with Myriam Chantal since 2012 and the couple had a baby girl, Lily-Dorina, born July 1, 2020. According to Myriam Chantal's Facebook, Myriam and Roch split up in 2022.

Discography

Albums

(Lack of positions prior to 1999 in Belgium, France and Switzerland does not mean necessarily that the albums did not chart. They may have charted, but lescharts.com lacks archives for albums for the period prior to 1999) *^AAlbums with separate Canadian and European editions.

Singles (English Language / Canada)

Singles (Europe / French Canada)

Filmography

*1989: '' Lance et Compte (He Shoots, He Scores)'' as Dany Ross (

series). It was broadcast also on TV5 with French subtitles as ''Cogne et Gagne'' *1992: '' Armen and Bullik'' as police detective Tom Bullik (TV film) *2004:

Cyberchase ''Cyberchase'' is an animated series, animated science fantasy children's television series that airs on PBS Kids. The series centers around three children from Earth: Jackie, Matt and Inez, who are brought into Cyberspace, a digital universe, i ...

- Coach (Penguin tears), Doctor (A Change of Art), Octionier, vender, additional voices (The Snelfu Snafu), additional voices

References

External links

Official website
*

{{DEFAULTSORT:Voisine, Roch 1963 births Acadian musicians Canadian male singer-songwriters Canadian country singer-songwriters Canadian pop singers Chevaliers of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres French-language singers of Canada Juno Award for Francophone Album of the Year winners Living people Members of the Order of New Brunswick Musicians from Edmundston Officers of the Order of Canada People from Bas-Saint-Laurent Singers from Quebec University of Ottawa alumni Juno Award for Artist of the Year winners Singers from New Brunswick