Paul Demers

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]

Paul Demers
Paul Demers performing at La Nuit sur l'étang in 2013.
Background information
Born(1956-03-09)March 9, 1956
Gatineau, Quebec
DiedOctober 29, 2016(2016-10-29) (aged 60)
Ottawa, Ontario
Genresfolk rock
Occupation(s)singer-songwriter
Years active1979–2016

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 of 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" (lyrics) and Francois Dube (music) 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 unofficial anthem,[2] and was formally designated as the community's official anthem by the Legislative Assembly of Ontario in 2017.[3][4]

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,[5] released three albums, and worked as a theatre producer and director.[6] A biography of him, by writer Pierre Albert, was published by Éditions Interligne in 1992.[7]

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

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