Paul Demers

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Paul Demers
Paul Demers performing at La Nuit sur l'étang in 2013.
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

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]

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 the lyrics to "Notre place", 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[]

  1. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e f "Singer Paul Demers wrote anthem for Franco-Ontarians". The Globe and Mail, November 29, 2016.
  2. ^ Jump up to: a b c d "Le chanteur Paul Demers mène son ultime combat la tête haute". Radio-Canada, October 1, 2016.
  3. ^ Notre place devient l'hymne officiel des Franco-Ontariens. Ici Radio-Canada, March 2, 2017.
  4. ^ La chanson «Notre Place» reconnue hymne officiel des Franco-Ontariens. TFO, March 2, 2017.
  5. ^ «Notre place», nous l’avons prise en chantant. Le Devoir, November 5, 2016.
  6. ^ "Staged reading of new play proves captivating". Ottawa Citizen, April 2, 1990.
  7. ^ "Engaging biography". Ottawa Citizen, June 27, 1992.
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