Fabienne Thibeault

Thibeault, Fabienne

Fabienne Thibeault. Singer, songwriter, b Montreal 16 Jun 1952. She studied songwriting with Sylvain Lelièvre at de Maisonneuve College, where she began singing songs by Jeff Lamothe, author of 'Contrecoeur' and 'L'Écureuil'. She then toured Montreal's small clubs and cafés, performing songs by Gilles Vigneault, Clémence Desrochers and Elton John. In the wake of a show for the St-Jean-Baptiste celebrations, she won the competition at the Granby Song Festival (1974), then she participated (1975) in the Chant'Août on the Plains of Abraham in Quebec City. At this event, producer Gilles Talbot noticed her and made her cut her first record. Her crystal-like voice and moving renditions quickly won her a large audience.

In 1978 Luc Plamondon offered her the part of Marie-Jeanne, the robot waitress, in the rock opera Starmania which opened at the Paris Convention Centre in 1979. Fabienne Thibeault's greatest hits date from this period: 'La Complainte de la serveuse automate,' 'Le Monde est stone,' 'Les Uns contre les autres'. So does her European career: at the MIDEM in Cannes (1979), Europe 1 television network declared her female discovery of the year. Back home, she captured Félix awards as discovery and female performer of the year in 1979, and for pop LP of the year in 1981.

Her engagements taking her to France more and more frequently, she gave a show which ran for four weeks at Bobino, a famous hall in Paris, (1984), was the star of a television special on FR3, hosted a television series for children on TF-1, recorded the theme songs for two films (Nous deux by Claude Lelouch and Croque la vie by Jean-Charles Tachella), and toured 45 French cities (1985). 'Question de feeling', a song by Luc Plamondon which she recorded with Richard Cocciante, climbed to the top of several hit parades in 1986. She opened for 22 shows of French singer Frédéric François in 1988. Since then, her career has been more active in France than in Quebec.