Louise Forestier (born Louise Belhumeur on August 10, 1942) is a Canadian

singer Singing is the art of creating music with the voice. It is the oldest form of musical expression, and the human voice can be considered the first musical instrument. The definition of singing varies across sources. Some sources define singi ...

songwriter A songwriter is a person who creates musical compositions or writes lyrics for songs, or both. The writer of the music for a song can be called a composer, although this term tends to be used mainly in the classical music genre and film scoring. ...

and

actress An actor (masculine/gender-neutral), or actress (feminine), is a person who portrays a character in a production. The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. ...

Biography

Born in

Shawinigan Shawinigan (; ) is a city located on the Saint-Maurice River in the Mauricie area in Quebec, Canada. It had a population of 49,620 as of the 2021 Canadian census. Shawinigan is also a territory equivalent to a regional county municipality (TE) ...

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, ...

, Canada, Forestier was trained in acting at the National Theatre School 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 ...

, but it was as a singer that she first became known in 1966, when she received the

Renée Claude Renée Claude (born Renée Bélanger; July 3, 1939 – May 12, 2020) was a Canadian actress and singer Denise Ménard, Suzanne Thomas and Benoît L'Herbier"Renée Claude" ''The Canadian Encyclopedia'', January 20, 2010. who was known as an inter ...

Trophy from Le Patriote, a ''boîte à chansons'' in east-end Montreal, and was named Discovery of the Year on 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 ...

TV program '' Jeunesse Oblige''. In 1968 she was part of the extraordinarily successful revue ''L'Osstidcho'', followed the next year by ''L'Osstidchomeurt'' with Robert Charlebois, Yvon Deschamps and Mouffe. She and Charlebois recorded the landmark song "Lindberg'" and toured

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

in 1969. In April 1970 Forestier starred in the Michel Tremblay, François Dompierre musical, ''Demain matin Montréal m'attend''. She continued with acting, appearing in Jacques Godbout's 1972 film '' IXE-13'', singing on the original film score. Forestier topped the Quebec charts in 1973 with a version of the

folk song Folk music is a music genre that includes #Traditional folk music, traditional folk music and the Contemporary folk music, contemporary genre that evolved from the former during the 20th-century folk revival. Some types of folk music may be ca ...

''"La Prison de Londres"'', performed with

guitar The guitar is a stringed musical instrument that is usually fretted (with Fretless guitar, some exceptions) and typically has six or Twelve-string guitar, twelve strings. It is usually held flat against the player's body and played by strumming ...

ist Claude Lafrance, and

pianist A pianist ( , ) is a musician who plays the piano. A pianist's repertoire may include music from a diverse variety of styles, such as traditional classical music, jazz piano, jazz, blues piano, blues, and popular music, including rock music, ...

Jacques Perron. With this song Forestier started to turn away from the hard rock of her early career to a repertoire largely inspired by Quebec folk music, and to a more personal style, which she continued through the 1970s. In 1980 Forestier played Marie-Jeanne, the ''robot waitress'' in the Montreal production

Luc Plamondon Luc Plamondon (born March 2, 1942) is a French Canadians, French-Canadian lyricist and music executive. His work includes the musicals Starmania (musical), ''Starmania'' and Notre-Dame de Paris (musical), ''Notre-Dame de Paris''. He is the brot ...

Michel Berger Michel Jean Hamburger (28 November 1947 – 2 August 1992), known professionally as Michel Berger, was a French singer and songwriter. He was a figure of France's pop music scene for two decades as a singer. As a songwriter he wrote for artists ...

rock opera A rock opera is a collection of rock music songs with lyrics that relate to a common story. Rock operas are typically released as concept albums and are not scripted for acting, which distinguishes them from operas, although several have been ad ...

Starmania. Two years later, with Plamondon as producer, she staged the hit show ''Je suis au rendez-vous''. This was the first of a series of shows in the 1980s, culminating in an appearance with Belgian singer Maurane as part of the Francofolies de Montréal in 1989. In 1990 she appeared at the Place-des-Arts in Montreal as Émilie Nelligan, the mother of the

poet A poet is a person who studies and creates poetry. Poets may describe themselves as such or be described as such by others. A poet may simply be the creator (thought, thinker, songwriter, writer, or author) who creates (composes) poems (oral t ...

in the romantic opera ''Nelligan'' by Michel Tremblay and André Gagnon. Forestier defended Yann Martel's novel '' Histoire de Pi'' in the French version of ''

Canada Reads ''Canada Reads'' is an annual "battle of the books" competition organized and broadcast by Canada's public broadcaster, the CBC. The program has aired in two distinct editions, the English-language ''Canada Reads'' on CBC Radio One, and the Fre ...

'', which was broadcast on

in 2004. In March 2019, she was one of 11 singers from Quebec, alongside Ginette Reno, Diane Dufresne,

Céline Dion Céline Marie Claudette Dion (born 30 March 1968) is a Canadian singer. Referred to as the " Queen of Power Ballads", Dion's powerful, technically skilled vocals and commercially successful works have had a significant impact on popular musi ...

, Isabelle Boulay, Luce Dufault, Laurence Jalbert, Catherine Major, Ariane Moffatt, Marie Denise Pelletier and Marie-Élaine Thibert, who participated in a supergroup recording of

's 1971 single "Tu trouveras la paix" after Claude's diagnosis with

Alzheimer's disease Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disease and the cause of 60–70% of cases of dementia. The most common early symptom is difficulty in remembering recent events. As the disease advances, symptoms can include problems wit ...

was announced.

Awards and recognition

* Winner of the ''Manteau d'Arlequin'' prize, 1976, awarded by the critics of

for the best presentation of a French song. * Quebec woman of the year in the arts field, 1984 * SOCAN Lifetime Achievement Award, 2013 * Member 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 ...

, 2013

Discography

* 1967 - ''La boulée'' * 1968 - '' Lindberg'' (with Robert Charlebois) * 1969 - ''La douce Emma'' * 1970 - ''Avec enzymes'' * 1970 - ''Demain matin, Montréal m'attend'' * 1972 - ''IXE-13'' * 1973 - ''Dans la prison de Londres'' (#3

RPM Revolutions per minute (abbreviated rpm, RPM, rev/min, r/min, or r⋅min−1) is a unit of rotational speed (or rotational frequency) for rotating machines. One revolution per minute is equivalent to hertz. Standards ISO 80000-3:2019 def ...

French-Canadian chart) * 1974 - ''Le reel à Ti-Guy'' * 1975 - ''Au théâtre Outremont, avec le cœur de tout nous autres'' * 1975 - ''Tour de chant'' * 1976 - ''On est bien mieux chez vous'' * 1978 - ''L'accroche-cœur'' * 1979 - ''Charlebois à la Forestier'' * 1983 - ''Prince-Arthur'' * 1987 - ''La passion selon Louise'' * 1991 - ''De bouche à oreille'' * 1993 - ''Vingt personnages en quête d'une chanteuse'' * 1993 - ''Québec love, la collection'' * 1997 - ''Forestier chante Louise'' * 2003 - ''Lumières'' * 2008 - ''Éphémère''

Filmography

Film

*'' IXE-13'' - 1972 *''

Orders Order, ORDER or Orders may refer to: * A socio-political or established or existing order, e.g. World order, Ancien Regime, Pax Britannica * Categorization, the process in which ideas and objects are recognized, differentiated, and understood * H ...

(Les Ordres)'' - 1974 *''

Little Tougas ''Little Tougas'' () is a Canadian comedy-drama film, directed by Jean-Guy Noël and released in 1976. Gerald Pratley, ''A Century of Canadian Cinema''. Lynx Images, 2003. . p. 128. The film stars Claude Maher as Rémi Tougas, a musician who is hi ...

(Ti-Cul Tougas)'' - 1976 *''La Postière'' *'' 2 Seconds (2 secondes)'' - 1998

Television

* ''Le 101, ouest, avenue des Pins'' (1984) * ''Paparazzi'' (1997) * ''Réseaux'' (1998)

References

External links

* *
Article at thecanadianencyclopedia.ca
{{DEFAULTSORT:Forestier, Louise 1943 births Living people Canadian stage actresses Canadian television actresses Canadian film actresses Canadian musical theatre actresses People from Shawinigan Singers from Quebec French-language singers of Canada Actresses from Quebec Members of the Order of Canada Canadian women pop singers 20th-century Canadian women singers 21st-century Canadian women singers