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Roch Voisine

Biography

Joseph Armand Roch Voisine (born 26 March 1963) is a Canadian singer-songwriter, actor, and radio and television host who lives in Montreal and Paris. He writes and performs material in both English and French. He won the Juno Award for Male Vocalist of the Year in 1994. In 1997 he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada.

Born in Edmundston, New Brunswick, Canada, he grew up in Saint-Basile, New Brunswick and later moved to Notre-Dame-du-Lac, Quebec when he was 12.

Voisine studied at École technique des métiers de Lauzon in Lévis (today Guillaume-Couture Secondary School) and at Polyvalente de Lévis (today École Pointe-Lévy). Then he continued for 4 years at Cégep Limoilou. He attended the University of Ottawa where he graduated in 1985 with a degree in physiotherapy and played 4 seasons with the uOttawa Gee-Gees men's hockey team.

Voisine aspired to be a professional ice hockey player. He had to set his plans aside when he was severely injured while playing baseball in 1981.

In the summer of 1986, he had his music debut when he sang on Canada Day (1 July) in front of 50,000 people at la Ronde amusement park in Montreal. He also worked as presenter of music videos on Top Jeunesse on the TQS (Télévision Quatre-Saisons) private French Quebec channel. In 1989, he appeared as Dany Ross in the CBC Television series Lance et Compte (He Shoots, He Scores).

Voisine's musical breakthrough came with his 1989 album Hélène which sold three million copies and became a major hit not only in Quebec but also in France, Belgium and Switzerland. In 1990, Hélène was awarded the Best Album prize at the Victoires de la Musique. He capitalized on his big success by releasing a bilingual French/English album Double with one CD containing all-French songs, the other all-English songs trying to position himself in both francophone and anglophone markets.