Renée Martel, the queen of Quebec country who made yé-yé crowds dance in the 1960s, died on Saturday, Les Productions Leclerc announced on the singer’s Facebook page.
She was 74 years old.
According to the press release, Ms. Martel died on Saturday afternoon at the Honoré-Mercier hospital in St-Hyacinthe, following severe pneumonia unrelated to COVID-19.
The blonde singer leaves behind a long legacy in the country music repertoire of Quebec, which she has enriched throughout her life, from her childhood.
Her parents, singers Noëlla Therrien and Marcel Martel, introduced her to music at an early age. If she continued their passion for country music during her long and prolific career, it was her yé-yé successes that propelled her to the heights of popularity. His hits Liverpool, I’m going to London and Johnny angel were very popular in the late 1960s.
She will quickly return to her first love in the 1970s and 1980s, with successes such as A love that doesn’t want to die, If we could start over and Take my hand.
While she thought to retire for good at the end of the 1990s following a difficult period, Renée Martel multiplies the albums in the 2000s. Her album Inheritance will even allow her to win the Félix for the Show of the Year – Performer, a trophy that she will collect with emotion in 2009.
Ten years later, in 2019, she will begin what she describes as her “ultimate tour”, which she had to interrupt due to the onset of breast cancer. The following year, she announced that she was in remission. And last October she released the album Against all odds realized with the singer Paul Deraîche. Both were to launch a tour next March.
Renée Martel has been honored several times, receiving several Félix awards at the ADISQ gala and the Lucille-Dumont prize from the Professional Society of Authors and Composers of Quebec. A stamp with his effigy was also issued by Canada Post in 2014. Pascal Allard, a country singer, even dedicated a song to him: I wanted to marry Renée Martel.