Garou

Born as Pierre Garand on June 26, 1972, in Sherbrooke, Quebec, French pop singer Garou revealed prodigious talent by mastering piano and guitar during primary school. His teenage years included membership in the rock band Windows and Doors alongside classmates, followed by trumpet duty in a Canadian military marching band. Daytime roles such as fashion store clerk and produce picker supported continued evening appearances in Montreal clubs and street-corner busking. The mid-1990s found him performing weekly at Sherbrooke’s Liquor Store of Magog while leading his group the Untouchables.

An introduction in 1997 to theatrical producer Luc Plamondon secured the role of Quasimodo in the 1998 stage musical Notre-Dame de Paris, an adaptation of The Hunchback of Notre Dame. Commercial triumph took the production to Paris’ Palais des Congres and onward through its French tour. New Year’s Eve 1999 brought an onstage collaboration with Canadian pop icon Celine Dion at a Montreal concert; her manager and husband René Angélil then helped arrange a recording deal, resulting in the solo debut Seul in late 2000. The international hit “Sous le Vent,” a duet with Dion, led to four Adisq Gala Awards, among them Best Male Singer and Best Pop-Rock Album.

Reviens arrived in 2004, and Garou’s self-titled third album followed in mid-2006. He sustained output through both live and studio recordings while alternating between French and English vocals, issuing his seventh studio album Rhythm’n’Blues in 2012.