The singer-songwriter Karim Ouellet was found dead in the music rooms of Place Unisson, Monday, in Quebec. A coroner’s inquest is ongoing and the cause of his death remains unknown.
Updated yesterday at 4:44 p.m.
“An investigation is underway into the death of Mr. Karim Ouellet. We cannot provide further details at this stage,” the coroner’s office confirmed on Tuesday. An investigation report will be made public when the investigation is complete. The musician was 37 years old.
“Unfortunately, the intervention of the emergency services took place at our premises,” said Alexandre B.-Boisvert, business development manager at Immeubles Tandem, owner of the studios in the Saint-Roch district, by email. “We are in communication with the family and the authorities. This is sad news and our hearts go out to the family and loved ones. We will wait like everyone else to find out more, if necessary, following the work of the authorities. »
Karim Ouellet’s sister, rapper Sarahmée, posted a short and touching message on social media on Tuesday morning. “It is with deep sadness that we, the family, announce the death of our dear Karim; a son, a brother, a friend and an exceptional musician. Karim will have left his mark in our hearts forever and we will continue to celebrate his life, his talent and his legacy”, can we read in this note also asking the media to respect the privacy of the family in these difficult times. “And thank you for this torrent of love for Karim, to those who have been touched by his words and his melodies, let’s continue to make his music resonate. »
Singer-songwriter Karim Ouellet was born on December 8, 1984 in Dakar, Senegal. He and Sarahmée were adopted at a very young age by a Quebec couple.
Talent, sensitivity and kindness
In 2012, the general public discovered the charismatic singer thanks to his second album, fox, powered by earworm love, which quickly topped the French BDS charts and won the Félix-Leclerc song prize.
fox won five selections at the ADISQ gala and caught the attention of Warner France, which signed a marketing agreement in 2013. The album, hosted by Coyote Records, won a Juno in the “francophone album” category the following year. The Belgian sensation Stromae also falls under the spell, and offers him the first parts of seven concerts in France.
Singer-songwriter Luis Clavis and his musicians have worked alongside Karim Ouellet many times, the first time in 2012 for the song I salute you marie, which appears on the first Quality Motel album, Motel Californa.
On the phone, the singer collects the tragic news with “a mixture of absolute sadness and a feeling of waste”. “He was an extremely talented guy, a big guy,” he said.
With the Misteur Valaire project, the Sherbrooke group enjoyed unprecedented radio success in 2014 thanks to love is a monster, still under the seal of collaborator Karim Ouellet.
“For him, it was something usual, a number one in the radios. We, it’s the only time we tasted it and it’s entirely thanks to Karim, completely thanks to his way of talking to people, of writing, thanks to his sense of melody. »
He had enormous sensitivity. He always expressed love, but love that hides more depth than other people who express love. It’s as if his way of expressing love came with a big, big past, that we couldn’t understand.
Luis Clavis, about Karim Ouellet
The singer of the group, renamed Valaire since 2016, was particularly marked by the “kindness” of Karim Ouellet, quick to move around to encourage his artist friends who played at the Cercle or on other stages in Quebec.
“Of everyone I worked with, he was the coolest baby,” observes Stéfane Campbell, Karim Ouellet’s publicist until the end of the cycle of fox, on the line. “He had a musical talent, an innate musical sensitivity and an ease in laying earworms that I have rarely seen. He could write a song in five minutes, and boom, everyone was singing it the next week. »
Stéfane Campbell finds it hard to explain, “if at all, how someone can go from being celebrated, adored by most of the province, to finding themselves reclusive, isolated from everyone, in such a short time. Shock is a lot of that.”
The ex-press officer of Coyote Records remembers the “irresistible smile” of the singer. “He was like a little guy you wanted to take care of, with his big eyes and his little face. I remember that when my mother met Karim, she said to me: ‟My God, I feel like taking him to eat soup.” It was the feeling he gave to everyone who met him. He was very hard not to like. »
three albums
Karim Ouellet first became known in Quebec City, where he started hip-hop collaborations in the lower town from 2007 and joined the Movèzerbe collective. It is in the company of Claude Bégin (Alaclair Ensemble) and Thomas Gagnon-Coupal that he launches a first disc with pop and soul sounds, Feather. The titles heal a heartache.
In 2009, Karim Ouellet advanced to the final stage of the Festival international de la chanson de Granby. “Thank you for everything Karim, your words and music will resonate for a long time to come,” the organization wrote on Facebook.
The musician’s most recent album was released by Coyote Records in 2016 under the title Thirty. With his faithful sidekick Claude Bégin, he pushes the electronic possibilities further. The author addresses in particular the themes of childhood and anxiety. “I write this to you on the edge of the abyss / They say that we come out of it stronger when we suffer / When we put salt on our wounds / Witness be the sky to me”, he sings in Karim and the wolf.
“I write a lot of sad songs – I can’t see myself writing happy tunes – and musically, I like the counterpoint that a sadder text gives to lively music”, he had confided to The Press upon release of the album. “I like sad movies, sad books, sad songs, but I like when you put a little bit of peanut butter on top to make it sound good. »
In 2017, at the call of The Press, Karim Ouellet joined Ariane Moffatt and La Bronze to perform Love each other, by Yvon Deschamps, in response to the attack on the Great Mosque of Quebec.
The singer-songwriter signed an agreement with Maison Barclay Canada, the Quebec version of Universal Music, in 2019, an alliance that will remain unfulfilled.
For several years, Karim Ouellet has been discreet on the musical and media scenes. Élise Bégin, a great friend and former singer of the artist, and Karim visited each other regularly until the summer of 2020, when they lived nearby, in downtown Quebec. She says that Karim, of a solitary nature, had isolated himself for some time.
Élise Bégin wishes to recall the great and beautiful vulnerability of this “adult who had kept a purity of soul” and who could easily laugh. She specifies that Karim was still making music and that he had an album almost finished in the boxes. “He was a real friend. »
Last August, Sarahmée entrusted The Press that his brother was working on new material. ” I’m back baby (“I’m back baby”), the singer wrote on August 15, 2020 in a Twitter post, one of his last social media appearances.
Visual artist Pony had been commissioned to illustrate Karim Ouellet’s new project, she posted on Instagram. “I have one of your new tracks on my computer because you wanted me to do your cover. New game, a title that has just taken on a whole new meaning today…”
“I’m working on a new album, with the best. The best in Quebec “, can we read on the Spotify page of Karim Ouellet.
Rapper Rymz last saw Karim Ouellet just before the pandemic began. “It was to work on new material,” he says. My girlfriend and I were in a photo for the visual of her project. “After learning the tragic news on Tuesday morning, he went back to the new pieces that Karim had sent him, “to get opinions”.
“Karim, he had an extreme sensitivity, an extreme delicacy, Rymz told us on the phone. He didn’t speak very loudly, but he was very special. The two artists remained close after spending a lot of time together during SOCAN camp, where they composed the song together. Sand seller. “What I remember from him is that he was a pure and hard artist, with all that comes with it,” says Rymz. He was always very inspired and inspiring. »
“When we did our song, he told me that he never wanted to forget the side of childhood [dans ses compositions], he adds. He always winked at it, there was a nursery rhyme side to his music. It caught up with me; he was someone who had remained young. »
Quebec has lost a great man and a great artist, and Rymz considers himself lucky to have crossed his path. “To have made a song together, for me, it was the pinnacle of a musical career in Quebec, concludes the rapper. I was honored to have him in my life, I felt privileged. »
Pride of Quebec
Host Pierre-Yves Lord no longer remembers exactly the very first time he met Karim Ouellet. It was in the capital, somewhere in the early 2000s. He has no trouble remembering, however, the impact the singer-songwriter has had on him over the years. “There are artists like that who touch us,” he said, pointing out that the singer is his son’s favorite. There was a powerful, fierce sweetness to his writing that touched my heart. »
He often interviewed him when his musical career was starting to take off. “What was magical was that he had this accessibility and a great closeness to people, says Pierre-Yves Lord, who even had the right to a dj set surprise of the singer for his 40and birthday. We were like, “Hey, Karim, do you want to jam?” and he came, he brought his guitar and offered us a little new session. »
Karim Ouellet “has forever marked the scene of our city and he has made Quebec shine everywhere,” he says. On show The end of the weak, which Pierre-Yves Lord animates, it is “a gang from Quebec” which occupies the seats of judges. There is Koriass, Souldia and Sarahmée, Karim’s little sister, whom Pierre-Yves saw on filming on Monday and whose absence was heavy on Tuesday morning on the set. Koriass and Souldia “are down”. “Everyone is devastated, says the facilitator. Our sister Sarahmée is not with us and that affects everyone. It’s really not obvious. »
With the collaboration of Mayssa Ferah, Dominic Tardif and Jean-Christophe Laurence, The Press