Paul Demers
Paul Demers | |
|---|---|
 Paul Demers performing at La Nuit sur l'étang in 2013. | |
| Background information | |
| Born | March 9, 1956 Gatineau, Quebec |
| Died | October 29, 2016 (aged 60) Ottawa, Ontario |
| Genres | folk rock |
| Occupation | singer-songwriter |
| Years active | 1979-2016 |
Paul Demers (March 9, 1956 - October 29, 2016) was a Canadian singer-songwriter.[1] He was best known for writing the song "Notre place", which came to be recognized as an anthem of the Franco-Ontarian community.[2]
Background
Born in Gatineau, Quebec,[1] his family moved to Ottawa, Ontario when he was 16.[1] He began performing as a musician in adulthood, touring music festivals across Ontario and forming the band Purlaine in 1979.[1] Following a diagnosis with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in the early 1980s, however, he took several years off from music to undergo cancer treatment.[1]
"Notre place"
He came out of retirement in 1986 to write "Notre place", which was originally commissioned for a gala to celebrate the passage of Ontario's 1986 French Language Services Act.[1] The song came to be adopted as the Franco-Ontarian community's anthem.[2]
Following "Notre place", Demers returned to touring, both as a solo artist and with musicians Robert Paquette and Marcel Aymar in the group Paquette-Aymar-Demers,[3] released three albums, and worked as a theatre producer and director.[4] A biography of him, by writer Pierre Albert, was published by Éditions Interligne in 1992.[5]
Death
Demers was diagnosed with mesothelioma in January 2016.[2] He gave a retrospective interview from his hospital bed to the Ici Radio-Canada Première program Grands Lacs Café in the fall, prior to his death on October 29.[2]
Discography
- Paul Demers (1990)
- D’hier à toujours (1999)
- Encore une fois (2011)
References
- ^ a b c d e f "Singer Paul Demers wrote anthem for Franco-Ontarians". The Globe and Mail, November 29, 2016.
- ^ a b c d "Le chanteur Paul Demers mène son ultime combat la tête haute". Radio-Canada, October 1, 2016.
- ^ «Notre place», nous l’avons prise en chantant. Le Devoir, November 5, 2016.
- ^ "Staged reading of new play proves captivating". Ottawa Citizen, April 2, 1990.
- ^ "Engaging biography". Ottawa Citizen, June 27, 1992.