Ginette Ravel

Ravel, Ginette

(Marie Thérèse) Ginette Ravel, (b Gravel). Singer, lyricist, b Joliette, Que, 6 Oct 1940. She studied elocution with Mme Jean-Louis Audet and began her singing career in 1959 at the cabaret La Cave in Montreal. Subsequently she recorded two singles, 'Le Secret de l'amour' and 'Par ce cri,' for RCA Victor. She sang in Paris 1963-4 and hosted CKAC radio's 1964 'Les Grand Prix du disque' and CFTM-TV's 1966 variety show 'À La Catalogne.' In 1967 she sang in Port-au-Prince, Haiti, and in 1968 she represented Canada at the International Song Festival, Sopot, Poland, where she won second prize with Jean-Pierre Ferland's 'Je reviens chez nous.' While living 1971-3 in France she sang in cabarets, at the Canadian Cultural Centre and the Théâtre Récamier in Paris, and at the 1972 Festival de la chanson in Reims. Returning to Canada she lived 1973-5 in retirement in the Laurentians, successfully overcoming a lung disease and alcoholism and later recording two of her own songs (music by Marc Fortier), 'Je suis fragile' and 'Du sable dans ma voix.'

Ravel returned to the stage in 1976 with a recital at the Boîte à chansons in Montreal's Hôtel Meridien. Ravel appeared there again in 1977 with a recital of Ferland songs and in 1978 with some of her own compositions. In 1979 she gave a recital of her songs, 'Encore une histoire d'amour,' at PDA.

Ravel made several LPs for RCA, among them recordings of concerts in Montreal at the Comédie-Canadienne (1966, PCS-6000) and the PDA's Théâtre Maisonneuve (1968, PCS-1186). RCA has collected her most popular recordings on the LP Mes Grands Succès (PCS-1025) and on two others, with the title Succès souvenirs (CGPS-309, CGPS-346). Between 1978 and 1990, she published four autobiographical books. (See Biography)