Jean-Pierre Ferland, the singer-songwriter who turned a fixture of Quebec’s cultural panorama over a profession that spanned greater than six a long time, died Saturday on the age of 89.
The company representing Ferland confirmed the singer, who’s signature track “une chance qu’on s’a” is thought to be a traditional of Quebec music, died of pure causes after being hospitalized earlier this 12 months.
Born in Montreal on June 24, 1934, Ferland was a prolific artist who produced some 30 albums, together with the culturally important “Jaune,” which offered some 60,000 copies in a 12 months after its launch in 1970.
He was named an officer of the Order of Canada and a knight of the National Order of Quebec, and was inducted into Canada’s Songwriters Hall of Fame in 2007.
Ferland held a live performance at Montreal’s Bell Centre in 2007 to formally mark his retirement after a greater than four-decade-long profession, however continued to carry out and report up till 2021.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, writing on X, described Ferland as a “giant” of francophone music.
“He wrote and sang songs that will be a part of Quebec culture forever,” Trudeau wrote. “He will be dearly missed.”
Quebec Premier François Legault described Ferland as a “great builder of Quebec-French song,” including that he’d listened to “Jaune” on repeat.
Canadian singer Roch Voisine paid tribute to an artist he described as “incomparable.”
“His album ‘Jaune’ changed everything,” Voisine mentioned. “And all the songs that followed. Rest in peace, Mr. Ferland.”
While he initially labored as an accountant, Ferland turned a fixture on the province’s cultural scene a couple of years after he recorded his first songs in 1958.
He began making a reputation for himself in each Quebec and internationally within the Nineteen Sixties earlier than the discharge of “Jaune” in 1970.
Ferland took his first steps into tv and films within the Seventies, and would turn into an actor, scriptwriter and host for a number of productions.
While a 2006 stroke prompted his official retirement, he continued to carry out and report, it didn’t in the end halt his output. Notable performances included at a 2008 live performance on Quebec City’s Plains of Abraham to rejoice the town’s four-hundredth anniversary with fellow Quebec stars together with Céline Dion and Ginette Reno. He additionally launched quite a few new albums, together with “Bijoux de famille” in 2009 and the dwell album “Les Noces d’or de jaune” in 2011.
“I left this profession, I stopped, I did a farewell show. But it didn’t last long,” he instructed Radio-Canada in 2021.
“I was ashamed, but I came back, and as quickly as possible. It’s the most beautiful job in the world.”
Ferland is survived by his accomplice and his two kids, in addition to 4 grandchildren and one great-grandchild.
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