Another step to change that will be taken tonight, when he is inducted into the Canadian Music Hall of Fame, a ceremony that adds to his other Canadian honours: The Governor General’s Award in 1966, and SOCAN prestigious Wm. Harold Moon Award, presented in 1991 for bringing the international spotlight to Canada through his music.
Born and raised on a farm in rural Quebec, he began to write songs and plays during his college years, and -while dreaming of Paris and New York – spent time in the early ’70s in California. In 1978, with the late French lyricist Michel Berger, he created Starmania, initially produced as an album project in French before emerging as a musical in Paris a year later, directed by Tom O’Horgan.
Since then-and Starmania continues as a touring attraction throughout Europe-Plamondon has alternated theatrical projects with songwriting for a who’s-who of Francophone artists, ranging from his favorite singer Diane Dufresne to Robert Charlebois, Celine Dion , Fabienne Thibault, Julien Clerc, Johnny Halliday, Diane Tell, and Nanette Workman. Petula Clark, Tom Jones, Murray Head, Cyndi Lauper, Kim Carnes and Tom Jones have also recorded his songs, with English lyrics, many by Tim Rice.One of Celine’s most remarkable albums(and she’s delivered quite a few in recent years) was Dion Chante Plamondon, a double platinum album in Quebec in 1992 and an immediate million-seller in France.
Today, Luc Plamondon has his biggest hit since Starmania. Notre-Dame de Paris, created with Richard Cocciante, is ending a sold out five-month run in Paris at the end of this month, before French and Belgian tours which will be followed by Montreal and Quebec City engagements in March and an Ottawa run in July.
It’s been an astonishing 20 years for Luc Plamondon; all that remains is for the rest of Canada to recognize him in the same way that audiences in Quebec and Europe have done for two decades.
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