Crooner was `an idol' to Quebecers for 60 years
Quebec's gentleman crooner Michel Louvain, who first found success as a 20-year-old matinee idol and grew in stature over a six-decade career to become one of the province's most popular stage and television performers, has died. He was 83.
Louvain died of esophageal cancer in his sleep Wednesday evening at the Verdun Hospital, his promoter said on social media. He is survived by his partner of 25 years, Mario Théberge, and his three sisters: Ginette, Lucie and Thérèse.
News of his passing reverberated well beyond Quebec's showbiz circles, spilling over into the political arena.
“The people of Quebec have lost an idol,” Premier François Legault said on Twitter. He called Louvain “a professional, kind, respectful, modest man.”
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also offered his condolences to “the family, friends, and many fans of Michel Louvain,” calling him “one of Quebec's greatest singers. His good humour, elegance, and charisma will be deeply missed.”
Louvain “is one of the greatest gentlemen I have met,” Quebec-born superstar chanteuse Céline Dion said Thursday on Twitter. “I am saddened by his departure, but his charm, his talent and his work will remain forever in our collective memory.”
Born Michel Poulin in Thetford Mines on July 12, 1937, this son of a miner began to sing in a local church choir as a child. As a teenager, he spent three years working as a hardware store decorator in his hometown before moving to Sherbrooke, and later Montreal, to embrace a full-time singing career. Once he made the jump, there was no turning back.
“I was always singing in the store,” he told CBC Radio in a 2012 interview. “I used to put a drape on the window and people used to knock on the window, saying: `When are we going to see what you're doing?' I had good ideas, but it's singing that was on my mind. “I'm a very lucky man.” Having been hired as a 20-yearold master of ceremony in a Laval-area hotel, Louvain soon got his first hit, “Buenas noches mi amor.”
He graduated to cabarets, where he began attracting a fiercely loyal female following whose devotion — chronicled in a 2009 documentary — still amazed him decades later. Some of his autograph sessions at the time even sparked riots.
“I'm married with my public,” he said in the 2012 CBC interview. “It's a good marriage. I'm part of the family.”
Asked by the interviewer about the many female fans that had put his picture in their bedrooms, he quipped: “I'm lucky that the husbands are not jealous because it could be dangerous for me.”
Over the more than 30 albums he recorded throughout his career, Louvain never strayed far from the love songs that first got him noticed. He notched his biggest hit in 1976 with “La dame en bleu,” a catchy, syrupy ode to a beautiful stranger that sparked multiple cover versions.
All the while, Louvain hosted hundreds of shows on television networks such as Radio-canada and TVA, winning several Félix and Metrostar awards. He was made Knight of the National Order of Quebec in 2010, and awarded the Order of Canada five years later.
In 2007, to mark his 50th career anniversary, he filled Montreal's Bell Centre — twice.