It was too good to be true. ICI Musique was to broadcast six unpublished texts by Dédé Fortin on Wednesday evening, performed in music by contemporary artists. Gold, the special Dede: news from you was canceled a few hours before it went on the air. The real author of the songs is in fact one of the first musicians of Les Colocs.
Guy Lapointe does not understand how we could have forgotten him. “There was negligence. I don’t know how, but there was neglect somewhere. The musician – literally one of André “Dédé” Fortin’s first roommates – co-wrote several of the group’s hits.
However, Radio-Canada was busy for a year and a half to set to music its six texts found by the family of the late singer. ” [Ce sont] texts by Dédé Fortin found on his computer after his death, ”explained host François Lemay the day before the show. “Even the family presumes. We think it was done in good faith. We will never really know when it was written. We think it comes from the start of his career. “
Six songs were therefore ready to be broadcast with great fanfare. Wednesday evening : In life, The year 2000, Professions, To die for, Cursed ride of bicyk and Marie-France. Mara Tremblay, Émile Bilodeau, Queen KA and Elkahna, Fanny Bloom, Sara Dufour, Antoine Gratton and former members of the Colocs took part in the adventure.
Guy Lapointe ignores everything about the project until he receives a call from a loved one. ” A friend sent me a link with the titles of all the songs. I see it [mardi soir] at 11 p.m. ”, he told the To have to still stunned. “I looked… But it’s nothing but my tounes ! Six out of six! At 11 p.m. the day before the show. I collapse ! “
He then compiles in disaster the evidence, the texts, the original tapes and sends everything to the directors of the show during the night. “It is very documented my case”, he assures.
Wednesday afternoon, the communications of Radio-Canada publish a tweet: “Questions about the authorship of the songs broadcast in the program Dede: news from you force us to postpone the broadcast. “
“There was absolutely nothing they could do,” explains Guy Lapointe. “You can’t take this away from me. Anyway, it was wrong ”. He claims to have “never been contacted by anyone” in this case.
“We are surprised ourselves”, concedes the To have to Émilie Brazeau-Béliveau in Marketing Communications for Radio-Canada Radio. She confirms that she was aware of this information the same day the special broadcast was broadcast. “It was really the family who gave us the rights. We have a valid license. We learn as much as you do. We are also perplexed. She adds that legal checks, particularly with SOCAN, are underway to cross-check Guy Lapointe’s statements. “We want to do things according to the rules of the art. “
The former member of the Colocs also returns the ball to one of the managers of André Fortin’s succession, Réal Fortin. “I’m a little sorry for Réal, but he should have called me. I do not understand. “
Réal Fortin declined our interview request.
Guy Lapointe specifies that he had previously warned this brother of André Fortin. ” He told me [il y a quelques années] have discovered lots of texts on a computer. I said: “Discover a lot of texts on André’s computer… Be careful. There can be things from him, from me, from other people. ” I still have this email where I write that it would take “careful consideration” if you decide to use the material on this. “
A different writing
The one who works today with the Kaleidoscope group maintains that “it was not very complicated for Radio-Canada” to verify what he says today.
As proof, he lists the history of these allegedly “unpublished” songs that he has already published in the past under other titles. ” The year 2000, this is the song We go forward and we go back on the album I saw. […] To die, this is the song Sing dance on Kaleidoscope’s debut album. […] In life, this is the song Internet of doom ”. The latter was also the subject of a video clip available on the first page of the website of Guy Lapointe’s group.
He mentions that the writing styles could be similar between him and André Fortin. “Sometimes I wrote like him, sometimes he wrote like me. We studied each other. But he insists that the words of Marie-France, for example, “have nothing to do with André’s style”.
“Writing was more my strong point, he was a bossy He remembers. “I was more of an intellectual, a little academic, petty bourgeois. André, he pulled it out, but he worked hard tabarnouche and as it should. “
Feeling “stripped of a part of his youth”, the musician says he is open to the dissemination of these six songs. ” I’m curious. I would like you to find the songs as good now that they know they are from me. It’s the fun to have two different music for the same song, ”he laughs.
The representative of Radio-Canada also mentions that the canceled program is only “postponed”.
“Maybe people could go see the tounes Kaleidoscope too, by Guy Lapointe, ”suggests the artist.