Natashkuan | Francophone Songs in North America

Gilles Vigneault is a poet and chansonnier from Natashquan, in the Côte-Nord region of Québec. He is regarded as one of the most important chansonniers of the 20th century, and can be credited with preserving and disseminate Québécois language and culture for an international audience.

Vigneault was born in 1928 in Natashquan; his father was a fisherman, and his family was likely of Acadian descent (as with many Natashquan residents). He studied at classics-focused schools and read French literature in university in Québec City; during this time he worked as a librarian, archivist and publisher, and inspired by important French authors such as Paul Verlaine, Victor Hugo, and Pierre de Ronsard, he took up writing poetry; he began to circulate his work and write songs for other musicians in the 1950s. In the beginning of the 1960s, he began to perform at clubs in Québec City, and released his first album, Gilles Vigneault, in 1962. With his song Mon Pays from the soundtrack to La neige a fondu sur la Manicouagan (1964), his reputation began to spread in Québec, and also Europe and the rest of Canada. During the 1970s, and marked by his featuring at the Superfrancofête (on the Plains of Abraham), he was cemented as one of the Francophone world’s most well-known artists, and toured through much of Europe and Canada: Vigneault is credited as one of the major revitalisers and disseminators of Québécois music and culture throughout the world.

Vigneault has released a staggering 44 studio albums, plus additional documentaries, soundtracks, collections of poetry, singles, and collaborations. His music has also been widely recorded by other chansonniers. Much of his output centres around Québec and its unique culture and people; he has been a strong voice for Québec nationalism including during the referenda, has starkly defended the French language, and has subsequently endorsed the Parti Québécois. Two of his songs, “Mon pays” and “Gens du pays,” have been adopted as unofficial national anthems of Québec. Vigneault founded his own record label in the early 1970s, releasing over 20 recordings with Éditions du vent qui vire.

Vigneault has received seven honourary Doctorate degrees, and has received a number of awards from the governments of Québec and France. There are a number of streets named after him in Québec, and even schools named in his honour in Québec, Montreal and Marseilles.

Francophone Songs in North America

Tag Archives: Natashkuan

Gilles Vigneault (1928–)