Éric Lapointe (singer)

Infobox musical artist
Name = Éric Lapointe


Background = group_or_band
Origin = Quebec, Canada
Genre = Hard rock
Years_active = 1994-Present
Label = Diffusion YFB Inc. Disques Gamma Ltée
Current_members = Éric Lapointe: Vocals, guitar Stéphane Dufour: Guitar
Past_members =

Éric Lapointe (born 28 September 1969 in Pointe-aux-Trembles, Quebec, Canada) is a francophone rock singer.

Biography

Éric Lapointe is one of Québec's most popular Francophone rock lead singers. His signature sound is characterized by very strong emotional lyrics, a rich deep gravelly voice and the virtuostic guitar work by Stéphane Dufour. This sound made him greatly stand out in contrast to the folksy, traditional sensibilities of his counterparts in 1994. In fact, local radio stations initially refused to play his songs. His music videos helped build momentum in his career and he is now very well respected, having performed with most notable singers in Québec.

Éric was born on September 28, 1969 in Pointe-aux-Trembles, QC weighing in at seven pounds, seven ounces. He is the oldest of three children (his brothers are Marc and Hugo - Hugo is also a singer and he launched a successful debut album in 2004. Hugo started out as a technician for his brother's band). Note that Éric is not related to the second season's Star Académie winner, Stéphanie.

His father Serge worked as a Zellers manager, and the family had to move a great deal. For example, at the age of 16, Éric moved a total of 13 times! As a result, he was shy and reserved, had difficulty making friends and was very close to his mother, Doris. She has been a strong supporter of his career from very early on.

At 9 years old, a young Lapointe asked his father for a plastic guitar from a Sears catalog. His father bought him a real guitar instead and Éric soon learned how to strum chords thanks to the help of his uncle (a musician). He wrote his first songs at the age of ten and started touring Québec and France at the age of 15.

At the age of 18, Éric joined the Parti Québécois and was discovered by Yves-François Blanchet (the president of l'ADISQ - the Québec Record Industry Association). Yves-Francois managed his early career - Éric cut his teeth on the local bar scene and CEGEP colleges. To supplement his income, Éric worked side jobs as a pool installation technician, garbage collector, waiter and credit card salesman. Even at this early age, he started building a reputation for getting into fist fights.

At the age of 20, Éric collaborated with Roger Tabra, writing his first hit single "N'importe Quoi". Despite having very little money, Éric organized a showcase at a popular bar called Club Soda for record industry. Patrice Duchesne (from Disques Gamma) was impressed by Éric's talent and offered him a record contract. Gamma helped produce his debut album "Obsession" which was released in 1994. Aldo Nova produced the album, which caused some internal friction within the band.

The music video for "Terre Promise" helped trigger mass sales for the album. On August 12, 1994 - Éric attracted a huge crowd of 45000 people at the corner of Jeanne-Mance and Sainte-Catherine in Montréal. The album "Obsession" was later certified platinum with over 250 000 copies sold.

He then produced several others albums including "Invitez les Vautours" (1996, 180 000 copies sold, À l’ombre de l’ange (1999, 225 000 copies sold) and "Adrénaline", a live album which sold as of 2006 nearly 200 000 copies. On November 2004, Lapointe launched "Coupable" and sold over 100 000 copies in its first few weeks. His first 5 albums were certified Platinum and an impressive 900 000 total discs were sold in 12 years.

He won 2 Félix awards for Breakthrough Artist of the year and for Best Rock Album at the Gala de l’ADISQ in 1995. He received in total in the same awards in 1995, five nominations including : Best Male Artist of the year, Best album sales and best composer-author-performer of the year (Concert Auteur-Compositeur-Interprète). He also received three record industry nominations. He was nominated again three times in 1997 and won his second Félix for Best Rock Album. His "À l'ombre de l'ange" album was the most successful as he won 5 additional Felix awards in 2000. Adrenaline also gave him a fourth Felix for Best Rock Album.

The Rolling Stones invited him to open their 2 two Paris concerts during the Voodoo Lounge Tour in 1995 along with Bon Jovi. They also played a concert at the la Rochelle FrancoFolies festival along with French artist Florent Pagny.

In 1995, he became the first artist to receive during the same year 2 Prix Miroir for Public's Choice and Best public performance, during the Quebec City International Summer Festival (premier artiste à recevoir une même année 2 Prix Miroir du prestigieux Festival d’été international de Québec - Choix du Public et Meilleure prestation scénique). He won the Public's Choice award at that same festival in 1997 and 2000, becoming the first artist to receive 4 awards in the event's 30 year run.

He also received an award by the Francophone radio stations for best song in 1995 for his song : Terre Promise Another single, N'importe quoi was voted best song by the Quebec public who were listening to the Radio Énergie radio stations across the province. The same radio network also voted Lapointe's singles "Loadé comme un gun" in 1997 and "Mon ange" in 1999 as the People's Choice for song of the year.

Lapointe had several #1 hits in the Quebec charts. They included "N’importe quoi", "Terre Promise", "L’exquise", "Je rêve encore", "Deux fois la même histoire", "D’l’amour, j’en veux pus", "Bobépine", "Loadé comme un gun", "Les Boys", "Rocket", "Laisse-moi seul", "Rien à regretter", "On commence à s’quitter", "Mon Ange", "Ma gueule", "Le Boys Blues Band", "Qu’est-ce que ça peut ben faire", "Un beau grand slow", "Reste là" and "La Bartendresse". They hit the charts on either the Radio Energie network, Montreal's Francophone station CKOI, the Rock Détente network or MusiquePlus.

In 1997, Lapointe published songs for two titles, "Le Screw" (written by Richard Desjardins) and "Les Boys", written for the popular movie by the same name. In 1998, he wrote an additional 2 songs for "Les Boys 2" : "Rocket" and "Alléluia", The soundtrack sold 25 000 copies in six weeks. He produced seven additional songs for the soundtrack of "Les Boys 3" including "Le Boys Blues Band". Released in 2001, the album sold 35 000 copies. Lapointe also performed a role in the movie in the role of Bruno, a friend of Léopold (Michel Charrette).

On April 8, 2002, he launched "Adrénaline" a double live album which contains 25 live tracks. He also participated in the compilation of Le Petit Roi. He was especially noticed for his interpretation of "Une chance qu'on a ca" by Jean-Pierre Ferland.

Éric Lapointe has had a few notable run-ins with the law. The first incident occurred in the Dominican Republic in January 2002 - the singer was arrested for drug possession. No charges were laid against him, however he still had to spend four days in prison. Later in October 2004, the singer was arrested for domestic violence and had to spend a night in prison. No charges were laid towards Éric and the woman was later arrested for making false charges, there was no relation between him and the woman pror to this event.Ironically, the singer released the album "Coupable" (French for "guilty") a few weeks later. The album artwork features Éric with his hands against a stone wall, the "arrest" pose. The album quickly reached platinum status. The most notable hit was "La Bartendresse" which featured a video written by Québec actor Patrick Huard. Lapointe wrote the vast majority of this album by himself.

During the Summer of 2006, Éric was contacted by Patrick Huard to collaborate on his movie Bon Cop Bad Cop (Huard and Lapointe first collaborated on the movie set of Les Boys). The singer contributed a rock song called "Tatoo" which became an instant hit, bolstered by the popularity of the movie. He also played the role of a notorious criminal named Johnny "Le Chat" (The Cat) Charland in the Quebec television series Le Negociateur which aired on TVA in 2005 and 2006. [http://tva.canoe.com/emissions/negociateur/personnages.html]

On November 22 2006, Éric released a greatest hits album called "1994-2006: N'importe Qui". It features both a CD and DVD compilation. The lead off single is a remake of his first hit "N'importe Quoi", featuring the singer performing an intimate acapella version of the song's intro accompanied by a grand piano.

In 2007, he made a guest appearance on the eponymous song of Dennis DeYoung's album "One Hundred Years from Now" as a singer and lyric writer.

Éric is very protective of his private life. What is known is that he dated a girl called Sophie Tardif for over 7 years. His current girlfriend is Marie-Pier Gaudrault. They met at a bar called Le Dagobert where she worked as a waitress. They recently got engaged in 2005 and are planning to get married in the near future.

22nd April 2008. 6th Studio album is released " Ma Peau"

http://www.ericlapointe.com

Discography

Albums

* "Obsession" (1994)
* "Invitez les vautours" (1996)
* "À l'ombre de l'ange" (1999)
* "Coupable" (2004)
* "Ma peau" (2008)

Compilations

* "Adrénaline" (2002)
* "Invitez les vautours" (2002) (Digipak re-release with DVD)
* "" (2006) (Gold) [ [http://www.cria.ca/gold/1206_g.php CRIA Gold & Platinum certifications for December 2006] . Retrieved July 25, 2007.]

oundtracks

* "Les Boys" (1997)
* "Les Boys II" (1998)
* "Les Boys III" (2001)
* "Bon cop, bad cop" (2006)

Other Songs

* "À toi"
* "Alléluia" (De l'album Les Boys II)
* "Alléluia (Instrumentale)" (De l'album Les Boys II)
* "Ayoye!"
* "Le boys blues band" (De l'album Les Boys III)
* "Le pitbull s'en vient" (De l'album Les Boys III)
* "Le screw" (De l'album Les Boys)
* "Les boys" (De l'album Les Boys)
* "L'exil" (De l'album )
* "Papa, pourquoi tu cries?"
* "Rocket (On est tous des Maurice Richard)" (De l'album Les Boys II)
* "Rocket (On est tous des Maurice Richard) (Instrumentale)" (De l'album Les Boys II)
* "Tatoo" (De l'album Bon cop bad cop)
* "Tatoo (Instrumentale)" (De l'album Bon cop bad cop)

Filmography

* 2001 : "Les Boys III" as Bruno

References

External links

* [http://www.ericlapointe.com Éric Lapointe official site]
* [http://www.paroles.net/artis/1524 Lyrics to some songs]
* Éric Lapointe on the French Wikipedia
* [http://www.dvdkaraokejukebox.com Versions karaoke]