Félix Leclerc | |
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Félix Leclerc (July 1957)
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Background information | |
Born |
La Tuque, Québec |
August 2, 1914
Origin | Quebec City |
Died | August 8, 1988 Saint-Pierre-de-l'Île-d'Orléans, Québec, Canada |
(aged 74)
Labels | Polydor, Philips |
Félix Leclerc, OC GOQ (August 2, 1914 – August 8, 1988) was a French-Canadian singer-songwriter, poet, writer, actor and Québécois political activist. He was made an Officer of the Order of Canada on December 20, 1968. Leclerc was posthumously inducted into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame for his songs "Moi, mes souliers", "Le P'tit Bonheur" and "Le Tour de l'île" in 2006.
He was born in La Tuque, Quebec, Canada from a family of pioneers in 1914, sixth in a family of eleven children. He began his studies at the University of Ottawa but was forced to stop due to the Great Depression.
Leclerc worked at several jobs before taking jobs as a radio announcer in Quebec City and Trois-Rivières from 1934 to 1937. In 1939, he began working as a writer at Radio-Canada in Montreal, developing scripts for radio dramas, including Je me souviens. He performed some of his earliest songs there. He also acted in various dramas, including Un Homme et son péché. He published a number of his scripts and founded a performing company which presented his plays through Quebec.
In 1950, he was discovered by Paris impresario, Jacques Canetti, and performed his songs in France to great success. He signed a recording contract with Polydor Records. He returned to Quebec in 1953. In 1958, he received the top award of the Académie Charles Cros in France for his second album. He was invested into the Order of Canada in 1971, the National Order of Quebec in 1985 and became a Chevalier of the French Légion d'honneur in 1986.