Marie-Michèle Desrosiers (born March 6, 1950) is a Canadian pop and rock singer from Quebec.[1] She is most noted as a former member of the influential rock group Beau Dommage,[2] and for her album Marie Michèle Desrosiers chante les classiques de Noël, which won the Juno Award for Francophone Album of the Year at the Juno Awards of 1998.[3]
Desrosiers studied piano at Collège Lionel-Groulx and acting at the National Theatre School of Canada before joining Beau Dommage as a singer and keyboardist.[4] She appeared on all of the band's four albums during its original run in the 1970s; on Passagers, she received her first songwriting credit for "Le Coeur endormi".[4]
Following the band's breakup in the late 1970s, Desrosiers pursued a solo career, releasing her self-titled debut album in 1980.[4] She released a second album, Plus fort, in 1983 before participating in Beau Dommage's 1984 reunion concert.[4] She followed up in 1985 with Aimer pour aimer, and recorded vocals for François Dompierre's soundtrack to the 1985 film The Alley Cat (Le Matou).[4] Throughout this time she also took a number of acting roles, predominantly in stage and musical theatre.[4]
She participated in the recording of Beau Dommage's reunion album in 1994.[2]
She released Marie Michèle Desrosiers chante les classiques de Noël, her first album of Christmas music, in November 1996.[5] Her most commercially successful album, it sold over 100,000 copies in Quebec within just a few weeks of its release.[5] In addition to the album's Juno Award win, it was a shortlisted finalist for Album of the Year, and Desrosiers for Female Singer of the Year, at the Prix Félix in 1997.[6]
In 2002, she followed up with Marie-Michèle Desrosiers chante Noël avec le choeur de l'Armée rouge, an album recorded in Moscow with the Red Army Choir.[1] Her other albums have included C'est ici que je veux vivre (2000), Mes mélodies du bonheur (2004) and Marie-Michèle se défrise (2008).[7]
She has had supporting roles in films, including Robert Ménard's Exit and Denys Arcand's Days of Darkness (L'Âge des ténèbres). More recently, she has continued to pursue a smaller-scale musical career, touring Quebec to perform Christmas music concerts with church and community choirs.[8]
References
edit- ^ a b "Marie-Michèle Desrosiers sous le choc" Archived 2017-08-19 at the Wayback Machine. Le Soleil, December 25, 2016.
- ^ a b "Beau Dommage to cut first album since 1978". Montreal Gazette, May 28, 1994.
- ^ "Full list of Juno winners". Montreal Gazette, March 23, 1998.
- ^ a b c d e f "Desrosiers, Marie-Michèle". The Canadian Encyclopedia, July 17, 2007.
- ^ a b "Sortie de l'album de Noël de Marie-Michèle Desrosiers". Bilan du siècle (Université de Sherbrooke).
- ^ "Felix nominations: Leloup leads pack". Montreal Gazette, September 17, 1997.
- ^ "Marie-Michèle a gagné à se défriser" Archived 2017-08-19 at the Wayback Machine. La Tribune, June 25, 2009.
- ^ "Marie Michèle Desrosiers et le chœur Daveluy chantent Noël" Archived 2017-08-19 at the Wayback Machine. La Nouvelle Union, November 19, 2014.