Bruno Pelletier

Bruno Pelletier

Early Career

Bruno Pelletier had a passion for music and sports, and early on combined the two in his career choices. He was self-taught, began playing the drums when he was thirteen, and learned the guitar at age sixteen. Singing soon followed suit. Ambivalent about a career in music at first, he pursued his collegial studies in the humanities. He opened a martial arts school in the 1980s, performing as a drummer and singer after hours. The artist toured bars for several years as lead singer (in English) with two rock bands: Amanite and Sneak Preview. Music prevailed and he founded his own French rock band, Pëll (using the first letters of his last name), in 1989. A year later, Pelletier landed his first recording contract.

Success and Tours

1992 was a pivotal year. Pelletier released his self-titled first album and landed parts in two musicals: Les fous du rock'n'roll, and La légende de Jimmy, the Québec Plamondon-Berger rock opera about James Dean, which used his physical and vocal talents.

In 1993, Luc Plamondon offered Pelletier the part of Johnny Rockfort in Lewis Furey's Parisian version of Starmania, a role Pelletier performed over 400 times during the next two years while he prepared his second album, Défaire l'amour (1995).

In 1997, he made his debut as the villain Michel Bergevin in the Québec television series Omerta II (Code of Silence) and released a third album, Miserere. The CD went double platinum by the end of January, 1999. In 1998, Pelletier was cast as Gringoire in the Plamondon-Cocciante musical Notre-Dame de Paris. The character's song "Le Temps des cathédrales" climbed francophone charts.

Bruno Pelletier released his fourth album D'autres rives in 1999 in Europe and Québec, followed by concerts in Paris at L'Olympia, La Cigale and Le Bataclan. He continued to perform in the Québec and London (England) productions of Notre-Dame de Paris.

He released a live album, Sur scène, in 2001, Un monde à l'envers the following August, and began a two-year tour (2002). In December of that year, he sang seasonal classics with l'Orchestre symphonique de Montréal at Notre-Dame Basilica: Concert de Noël.

New Musical Roles

In 2004, Pelletier returned to the stage in the title role and as music director and co-producer of the Québec musical Dracula - Entre l'amour et la mort. The show premiered in Montréal (2006), and toured in France (2007). In 2007, Pelletier released a pop and jazz album with standards in English: Bruno Pelletier et le GrosZorchestre which won a Félix award for best album - jazz performance in 2008.

He released Microphonium in 2009, marking his 25th anniversary as a singer. That same year, he toured Russia for the first time. He performed in Ukraine and Russia in 2010 and 2011, and his song "Dénaturé" became number one on Moscow radio.

Pelletier performed in the musical Les filles de Caleb (2011), based on the Arlette Cousture trilogy, a popular television series in Québec.

Awards

Pelletier has won numerous Félix awards at the ADISQ gala in addition to numerous certifications and nomionations. He was best male vocalist (1997, 1999 and 2000). His album Miserere was best pop-rock album and best-selling album (1998) and the concert based on this album was named best live performance. "Le temps des cathédrales" was best song (1999) and D'autres rives won album of the year in 2000.