Renée Martel, 1947-2021 The queen of country dies
Renée Martel, the indisputable queen of Quebec country, also nicknamed the golden cowgirl and interpreter of the great success A love that does not want to die, breathed her last on Saturday afternoon. She was 74 years old.
Updated Dec 18. 2021André Duchesne La PresseLila Dussault La PresseAfter a career spanning more than 60 years, marked by countless successes on records and on stage, but also by illness and trying personal dramas, the singer succumbed at the age of 74 to following severe pneumonia unrelated to COVID-19, at the Honoré-Mercier hospital center in Saint-Hyacinthe.
“Few artists in Quebec have a track record as impressive as that of Renée Martel. Totaling more than 65 years of career and rich in an exceptional career, she has long marked the history of Quebec music with an indelible imprint with a repertoire that combines both modernity and respect for traditions," said indicated its producer by press release.
“She was hospitalized at the beginning of December because she was not feeling well, detailed Narimane Doumandji, president of Communications Narimane who had worked with Renée Martel since 2007. They discovered that she had severe pneumonia, nothing to do with with COVID. Yesterday she started having difficulty breathing. »
Renée Martel breathed her last on Saturday morning, surrounded in particular by her two children, Dominique and Laurence. “I had this chance to live 15 years with Renée, until the very end”, testified Martin Leclerc, his producer. He was present at his side Saturday morning at the hospital.
Due to failing health, the last years of the singer will have been a reflection of this eventful life. Renée Martel, however, shows resilience by releasing new albums and continuing to sing.
"For me, Renée remains a monument to Quebec, both musically and socially," said Martin Leclerc. She is of the same stamp as Maurice Richard, René Lévesque and Michel Louvain. She will remain in our memories over the years and decades. »
“It’s sad news, she is a woman who had an extraordinary career, also noted singer Joël Denis, in an interview with La Presse. It is the equivalent of Louvain among women, the most loved by a wide audience. It is a great loss for the artistic community,” he said.
Integrity and simplicity
The death of Renée Martel, icon of Quebec music, was a shock to those around her. “It was not expected at all, not at all, explains Mme Doumandji. This week it was again, "I'm stable, I'm going to get back on track". She was looking forward to Christmas..."
“Renée was a person who was honest, simple, who was close to the world, testified Martin Leclerc. She had generosity and loyalty with the people she met in her profession. »
Renée Martel had planned a show tour in the spring with singer Paul Daraîche. Their joint album entitled Contre Vents et Marées was released in October 2021. The last song, Born on the same day, referred to the fact that the two artists had the same date of birth, June 26, 1947. “They are brothers and sisters. cosmic sister as they call each other, says Mme Doumandji. It's completely unreal. »
Saturday, Paul Daraîche, along with five other well-known artists, notably Laurence Jalbert and Luce Dufault, presented the show Noël une tradition en chanson, in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu. Despite Renée Martel's death, it was decided that the show would go ahead. "The artists want to pay tribute to him in their own way, so they will do it," said Mme Doumandji. […] But everyone is devastated, nobody expected that. »
“The stage was his life. His remedy to save her and heal her of what she had. But the body was stronger than his mind, ”laments Martin Leclerc.
A rain of tribute
Quebec quickly wanted to pay tribute to the one who marked more than 60 years of music in the province. "She marked several generations," says Martin Leclerc. I think everyone has had a Renée Martel album or record at home. »
Indeed, messages of respect and condolences paraded on social networks as soon as the announcement of the death of the singer. “My condolences to the loved ones of a great star of our youth. I have a love that does not want to die…”, tweeted the Premier of Quebec François Legault on Twitter.
“True queen of country, Renée Martel marked Quebec with her songs, for her part indicated on Twitter the mayor of Montreal, Valérie Plante. His departure is a great loss. My thoughts are with his family and loved ones. »
“Farewell @ReneeMartel_… Yesterday again, I received her good wishes for my birthday via FB, also tweeted the artist Danièle Lorain I had told her to take good care of her. You have to believe that God took care of it… Condolences to all those who loved him. »
Beginnings
Daughter of two country singers, Marcel Martel and Noëlla Therrien, Renée Martel was born in Drummondville on June 26, 1947. Throughout her childhood and adolescence, she accompanied her parents on stage.
She was five years old, on August 12, 1952, when she went on stage for the first time, at the Théâtre Royal in Drummondville. In the process, she participated in countless tours as well as the radio show hosted by her father at the CHLT station in Sherbrooke.
The closer she gets to adulthood, the more she detaches herself from her parents' career to lead her own boat. We are then at the beginning of the 1960s. From country, she migrates to pop. Very quickly, she made her appearance on television, notably on the program Jeunesse d'Aujourd'hui.
A first 45 rpm record, C’est toi mon idole, was released in 1964. In 1967, she had her first big hit with the song Liverpool. Followed by I'm going to London, Come change my life and many others. Her rise was meteoric, to the point where she was the Female Revelation of the Year at the 1968 Artists' Gala.
Like many other artists, Renée Martel takes American hits and adapts them into French. But she does not just translate words. She often rewrites the songs.
"I wrote the adaptations in French, but I didn't want the full versions, in the sense that I wanted a text of my own, which often had nothing to do with that of the original version", you will say. -elle to our colleague Marc-André Lussier in an interview published on 1st November 2018.
After the 45 rpm came the first 33 rpm albums, including one in 1971 recorded with Michel Pagliaro. It is also the voice of the latter who announces an air departure to the British capital in the song I go to London.
The path to these first artistic successes is not, however, without its rough edges. At 18, the singer was raped by a show presenter, she wrote in her autobiography Renée Martel, Ma vie je t'aime released in 2002.
In a relationship with the singer Jean Malo, she also experienced a difficult break-up in 1971. Thus, in the May 8 edition of the popular newspaper Télé-Radiomonde, there are two articles on her health and love troubles. A first text relates that she lost a large advertising contract due to an emergency operation. A second, signed Michel Girouard, relates that the singer is "devastated by a terrible nervous breakdown" attributable to her break with Malo.
His meeting Jean-Guy Chapados, bassist and ex-member, for a few months, of the group Les Baronets, marks a new turning point. From 1971 to 1976, Martel and Chapados formed a couple from which a son, Dominique, was born in 1974.
During this period, Renée Martel will release the greatest success of her career, Un amour qui ne ne ne va rien die, a translation of Never Ending Song of Love by the group Delaney & Bonnie & Friends. The tube, which marks an assumed return to country, will be sold to 400,000 copies. From that moment on, Renée Martel's career is inseparable from this song.
Throughout the decade, she played 45s, albums, shows, including a first time at Place des Arts. She also made a foray into the world of animation when she co-hosted the show Patrick et Renée with Patrick Norman. The two would collaborate many times over the years.
Two stops
The 1980s marked a first stop in the singer's career, more precisely in 1986 when, recently married to Georges Lebel, father of her daughter Laurence, she moved to Morocco for a few years.
But before that, she will not have been idle. She released four new LPs, took part in the La grande retro tour with other Quebec artists, published a book, Renaissance: a moving story in which she recounted her struggle against alcoholism, won two Félix awards for the best country album. at the ADISQ gala, etc.
She resumed the necklace a few years later. In 1992, the album Authentique was released, made up of previously unreleased songs. Then, from 1993 to 1996, she hosted the program Country centre-ville on Radio-Canada. It was a huge success in terms of ratings.
In 1999, everything came to an abrupt end. After mourning the death of her father Marcel on April 13, the singer announced in early June that she was ending her career. Recurring bronchial problems cause him to cough up blood. She underwent a pulmonary embolization to curb the disease and retired to her land in the Knowlton region in the Eastern Townships.
This announcement coincides with the launch of the album À mon père made of twelve songs from the repertoire of the father with whom Renée had a difficult relationship in the past. This new disc will also collect the Félix for country album of the year a few months later.
She nevertheless tries to continue her activities sporadically. In 2000, she played her own character in the miniseries Willie by Jean Beaudin, telling the story of Willie Lamothe. In 2002, she launched an autobiography written with her son, and a compilation. But in June, the disease catches up with her again and she is forced to stop everything.
These years were also marked by a serious skiing accident and a suicide attempt.
The return
But the queen of country did not sing her last note. After a few years of rest, the lung disease regresses. Inner peace returns. Renée Martel resumes her activities, without imposing a hellish work rhythm.
At the end of April 2006, she launched the album A love that does not want to die where she revisits several of her successes. The album should have been launched earlier in the year, but a serious automobile accident in which she was injured delayed its release.
"Curiously, it was perhaps this accident that provoked positive reactions and gave me the energy to start all over again," she told journalist Jean Beaunoyer of La Presse. I still have 15 quality years to live and I intend to enjoy it, have fun on stage and do what I do best in life: sing. I no longer have breathing problems, I no longer need a pump and I feel better and better. »
On May 5, 2007, after many years of interruption, she returned to the stage at the Vieux Clocher in Magog. The room is full and rises at his entrance.
"I was sure that that evening, there would be three cats and a small dog in the room," she confides to journalist Linda Corbo of the Nouvelliste de Trois-Rivières in an interview published on September 6. 2008. When I went on stage, people were on their feet, they were shouting “we love you”. I got so emotional. »
Other albums followed, including L’Héritage (2008), Une femme libre (2012), La fille de son père (2014) as well as several collaborations with Maxime Landry, Les Trois Accords, Gilles Vigneault and many others.
Finally comes the release, on November 2, 2018, of the album L’arrière-saison, recorded in Nashville and Montreal under the direction of Carl Marsh. This one is made up of original songs written by his peers.
"I was not really inspired as an author and I still wanted to create, confides to La Presse the singer who has often written her pieces. I know that covers are fashionable, but I don't want to get on that train because there are too many of them. »
Here again, these years are full of ups and downs. Thus, in 2008, the singer saw another tragedy, the suicide of her lover. In 2012, she must receive preventive chemotherapy treatments due to a liver disorder. His mother Noëlla Therrien died on March 28, 2015.
Moreover, the tributes are multiplying. Two Félix awards (country album of the year and show of the year for his album L'Héritage) in 2009, Lucille-Dumont prize from the Professional Society of Authors and Composers of Quebec in 2010, Félix tribute in 2012, a stamp her image and publication of a biography of Danielle Laurin in 2014, SOCAN Excellence Award in 2018.
His song Come and change my life can be found in the soundtrack of the film Les amours imaginaires by Xavier Dolan. Ditto for Liverpool in the film… Liverpool by Manon Briand.
In the crossing of these decades, the love of the public has been permanent. Just like Renée Martel's unconditional love for her own repertoire. At La Presse in November 2018, she said: “I chose all the songs I recorded in my career and I love them all, without exception. I always sing them as if it were the first time. »
