The one who has rocked without wavering since the turn of the 80s, Marjo, received the Artisan de la fête nationale prize, awarded by the Mouvement national des Québécoises et Québécois. The distinction was presented to him on Thursday after a tribute to which France Castel and Breen LeBoeuf contributed in particular.
“Of all the Quebec artists, I am the proudest! », Launched the rocker, visibly excited by the honor done to her. She took the trouble to tell France Castel that her version of her song Elsewhere was the best she had ever heard and teased her old friend Breen LeBoeuf, who improvised a bit by covering If one day it were necessary.
The National Day Artisan prize is awarded each year to an artist whose influence and contribution were exceptional. Like Marjo, who has had a career for 50 years and who was able to galvanize crowds as soon as she joined Corbeau at the end of the 1970s. However, it was with her solo career, whose success was phenomenal from the middle from the 1980s until the following decade, she gave the measure of the artist she was as an author.
Marjo did not sing on Thursday, but she will be on stage during the national holiday. The programs for the major shows have not yet been revealed, but we suspect that she will be on stage either in Quebec, on June 23, or in Montreal, on the 24. She has also invited all Quebecers to celebrate. “Invite those who don’t know it,” she added, speaking of this celebration of Quebec society.
Benoit McGinnis
PHOTO ALAIN ROBERGE, THE PRESS
The spokesperson for National Day 2024, Benoît McGinnis
In addition to the prize for Marjo, it was the opportunity to reveal the name of the spokesperson for National Day 2024: the actor Benoît McGinnis. He said that he was going to make a dream come true by stepping onto the stage of the Plains of Abraham on June 23 and that he was proud to see “different people coming together and experiencing the national holiday in their own way”, proud of see his Quebec “always be there, standing, developing and growing, in French”.
The Minister of Culture and Communications, Mathieu Lacombe, announced his intention to make the national holiday a larger-scale event by 2026. “I think it is time that we make place in who we are, without complexes,” he said, before assuring that he would “always be an ally of the national holiday.”
Some of the artists who will participate in the National Day festivities on June 23 and 24 were also present, including Marie-Élaine Thibert, Suzie Villeneuve, as well as members of the groups Zébulon and Noir Silence. It was also announced Thursday that Zachary Richard, Ariane Moffatt, Galaxie, Laurence Jalbert, Marie-Pierre Arthur, Safia Nolin, Fanny Bloom, Kanen and a few others will be in the show presented at the Laval Nature Center on June 23.