The author, composer and performer Yves Duteil was named, yesterday, by Prime Minister François Legault, Knight of the National Order of Quebec.
The author of take a child And Our language was decorated yesterday in a ceremony at the Garrison Circle. Yves Duteil joins Félix Leclerc, Gilles Vigneault, Michel Rivard who marked the Quebec cultural landscape and others who received this honor, awarded by the Quebec State, for their exceptional contribution.
“We honor an exceptional author, composer and performer. A great friend of Quebec. Quebecers have adopted you from the start and they fell in love with you. Your songs are now part of our popular culture,” said Premier Legault.
The Prime Minister added that take a child had become the song most used in baptism ceremonies in Quebec and that it imposed itself even before France.
“Proof that Quebecers are truly visionary,” he laughed.
François Legault also hailed Yves Duteil for his success Our language.
“This song has a very strong meaning for us Quebecers. We see it as a declaration of love for the French language. You have made us proud of our language. You are more than a friend. You are an ally of the Quebec nation,” he said, adding that the French language will always be vulnerable in the heart of an English-speaking ocean.
A turning point
Yves Duteil, who has a 50-year career, is honored to receive the National Order of Quebec, the highest distinction awarded by the Quebec state.
“It is a huge honor and recognition of those who have inspired me. It is a more than precious gift and I savor it as a privilege. Quebec is like a second home to me. I found here a land of fraternity and a loving family. Our language, which I wrote after my meeting with Félix Leclerc, was a turning point in my life”, he said before taking out his guitar and interpreting it.
The 73-year-old author, composer and performer said that meeting Félix had changed his way of writing. Felix had told her that a poet who doesn’t bother is useless.
“He made me realize that we’re not here just to write pretty words and beautiful songs, but that we could also bring people together. This was the great lesson of La langue de chez nous. It was the first song I wrote that was able to bring people together,” he said in an interview.
On tour in Quebec, Yves Duteil, who said, with humor, to have been challenged, on his arrival, by the “beautiful campaign of the government of Quebec against the decline of French”.
“The French language is everyone’s business. We have a treasure in our hands. What will ultimately win is not French, or Italian or Spanish, but it’s diversity,” he pointed out.
Yves Duteil is always amazed by the reactions when he sings Our language.
“There is a kind of emotion of extraordinary strength that emerges at the beginning and at the end of the song. I feel this emotion deep inside of me. It brings me to tears every time,” he said.