Stephen Carse (born May 22, 1965), credited as Steph Carse is a Canadian pop singer.
Career
Originally from
Montreal
Montreal ( ; officially Montréal, ) is the second-most populous city in Canada and most populous city in the Canadian province of Quebec. Founded in 1642 as '' Ville-Marie'', or "City of Mary", it is named after Mount Royal, the triple- ...
,
Quebec
Quebec ( ; )According to the Government of Canada, 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 ...
,
["Steph Carse showcases his songwriting". '' The Gazette'', December 8, 1994.] Carse began his career in the 1990s. His first major television appearance was on TF1 in France on the show "Sacrée Soirée" with an audience of 17 million viewers. He sang an original French song called "Je voudrais lui dire", and was presented as "The Number One of Tomorrow". The song was released as a single on Sony France. His earliest hits were French translations of country hits such as "
Achy Breaky Heart
Achy may refer to:
* Suffering from pain
Pain is a distressing feeling often caused by intense or damaging stimuli. The International Association for the Study of Pain defines pain as "an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associate ...
" and "
Boot Scootin' Boogie
"Boot Scootin' Boogie" is a song first recorded by the band Asleep at the Wheel for their 1990 album, ''Keepin' Me Up Nights''. American country music duo Brooks & Dunn recorded a cover version, which was included on their 1991 debut album, ''Bran ...
". His breakthrough album, 1993's ''Steph Carse'', also included songs by
Elvis Presley
Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977), or simply Elvis, was an American singer and actor. Dubbed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, King of Rock and Roll", he is regarded as Cultural impact of Elvis Presley, one ...
and
Roy Orbison
Roy Kelton Orbison (April 23, 1936 – December 6, 1988) was an American singer, songwriter, and musician known for his impassioned singing style, complex song structures, and dark, emotional ballads. His music was described by critics as ...
, while his followup, 1994's ''Un Dernier slow'', concentrated much more strongly on his own original songwriting.
He has sold over 500,000 records, earning him a Juno nomination for
Best Male Artist at the
Juno Awards of 1994
The Juno Awards of 1994, representing Canadian music industry achievements of the previous year, were awarded on 20 March 1994 in Toronto at a ceremony in the O'Keefe Centre. Roch Voisine was the host for the ceremonies, which were taped that aft ...
.
In 1999, he successfully entered the mainstream Canadian market when he donated a song for the
Special Olympics
Special Olympics is the world's largest sports organization for children and adults with intellectual disabilities and physical disabilities, providing year-round training and activities to 5 million participants and Unified Sports partners in 1 ...
on an album entitled ''Holiday Heroes''. Featuring artists like
Alan Jackson
Alan Eugene Jackson (born October 17, 1958) is an American singer-songwriter. He is known for blending traditional honky-tonk and mainstream country pop sounds (for a style widely regarded as " neotraditional country"), as well as penning man ...
,
Donna Summer
LaDonna Adrian Gaines (December 31, 1948May 17, 2012), known professionally as Donna Summer, was an American singer and songwriter. She gained prominence during the disco era of the 1970s and became known as the "Honorific nicknames in popular m ...
,
Brooks & Dunn
Brooks & Dunn are an American country music duo consisting of Kix Brooks and Ronnie Dunn, both of whom are vocalists and songwriters. The duo was founded in 1990 through the suggestion of Tim DuBois. Before their formation, both members were solo ...
and
Kevin Bacon
Kevin Norwood Bacon (born July 8, 1958) is an American actor. His films include the musical-drama film '' Footloose'' (1984), the controversial historical conspiracy legal thriller ''JFK'' (1991), the legal drama '' A Few Good Men'' (1992), th ...
, Carse's song led off the album, which went gold and raised over $2 millions of net profit for the Canadian Special Olympics.
Carse released his first American album, ''Reach Out'', in 2006. ''Reach Out'' was also promoted by a 60-minute concert special which aired internationally, including on PBS in the United States.
The one-hour special ''Reach Out'' was filmed in
Kauai,
Las Vegas
Las Vegas (; Spanish language, Spanish for "The Meadows"), often known simply as Vegas, is the List of United States cities by population, 25th-most populous city in the United States, the most populous city in the U.S. state, state of Neva ...
,
the Bahamas
The Bahamas (), officially the Commonwealth of The Bahamas, is an island country within the Lucayan Archipelago of the West Indies in the North Atlantic. It takes up 97% of the Lucayan Archipelago's land area and is home to 88% of the arc ...
and
Orlando, Florida, and has won five awards from The Florida Motion Picture and Television Association FMPTA: "Best Feature Film in a Television Program", "Best Male Vocalist in a Feature Film", "Best Director in a Music Video", "Best Male Vocalist in a Music Video" and "Best Composer for the song Reach Out". Carse's collaborators on the ''Reach Out'' project were
Eric Schilling,
Joe Hogue and
Gilles Godard.
Carse donated the self-penned title track, "Reach Out" to the
American Red Cross
The American Red Cross (ARC), also known as the American National Red Cross, is a non-profit humanitarian organization that provides emergency assistance, disaster relief, and disaster preparedness education in the United States. It is the desig ...
in September, just three days before the
Hurricane Katrina disaster. The Red Cross fell in love with the song, named it the Official Thank You Song of the American Red Cross and used it to thank volunteers and donors.
The album ''The Best Pop Opera 2010'', which features Carse's original song "No More Masquerade", reached #1 in
Turkey
Turkey ( tr, Türkiye ), officially the Republic of Türkiye ( tr, Türkiye Cumhuriyeti, links=no ), is a list of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolia, Anatolian Peninsula in Western Asia, with ...
in March 2010, and remained in the Top 5 for over eight months.
In 2012, Carse donated a song to
Whole Foods
Whole Foods Market IP, Inc., a subsidiary of Amazon, is an upscale American multinational supermarket chain headquartered in Austin, Texas, which sells products free from hydrogenated fats and artificial colors, flavors, and preservatives. A USDA ...
for The Whole Planet Foundation to help fight poverty around the world.
In 2013, Carse acted for the first time in the
romantic comedy
Romantic comedy (also known as romcom or rom-com) is a subgenre of comedy and slice of life fiction, focusing on lighthearted, humorous plot lines centered on romantic ideas, such as how true love is able to surmount most obstacles. In a typic ...
film ''Marriage Material'' with Maddy Curley.
On August 12, 2017, Carse's one-hour television special ''My Shining Hour'' aired on
Daystar.
In 2019 Steph Carse won the Emmy Award for Musical/Composition/Arrangement for "Amazing Grace" from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, Suncoast Chapter.
The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences announced the winners of the 2020 Suncoast Regional Emmy Awards. Steph Carse received 2 Emmy Awards in the category Director for "Y iCount (You Are Awesome)," and Producer in a Religious Program: "My Shining Hour Story".
Discography
* ''J'ai envie de t'aimer'' (1991)
* ''Stef Carse'' (1993)
* ''Un Dernier slow'' (1994)
* ''Fiesta''
* ''Holiday Heroes''
* ''Reach Out'' (2006)
* ''The Best Pop Opera'' (2010)
* ''Now'' (2012)
* ''My Shining Hour'' (2017)
* ''Steph Carse 25'' (2019)
References
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Carse, Steph
1966 births
Living people
Canadian country singers
Canadian pop singers
French Quebecers
Singers from Montreal
French-language singers of Canada
20th-century Canadian male singers
21st-century Canadian male singers