Daniel Lavoie : the official website

"The things which are important to me: love, friendship and sharing"

Le Lundi, 1992
Dominique Beauchamp

During the middle of a referendum campaign, Daniel Lavoie released his third album in English "Here in the heart". He needed to be very adroit to avoid the traps of these times where each word took on a political meaning. Always graceful, generous and emotional, the Franco-Manitoban singer who is a true product of bi-culturalism, mixes up the styles and literally lights us up. His songs have some of the magic which makes us forget the time which has passed over the generations up to us.

As soon as he entered the small office of his recording company the place filled up with a lone presence: his. Wherever he is, all eyes naturally turn in his direction. The handsome, dark-haired man moves elegantly … and, behind the smile of a charmer, one senses the gentle bashfulness which makes him such an endearing person. Born in Manitoba, to a family belonging to one of the cultural minorities in that province, Daniel Lavoie is a Quebécois by adoption who delights in and knows how to make the most of this happy double culture. "I was brought up speaking French by my parents, who clung on to their language and I went to study at the Jesuit College to perfect my education in French. This is why I speak French today … if I had stayed in Manitoba I would probably have had lots of problems."

Today, do you think of yourself as more Quebécois than Manitoban?
I remain a Franco-Manitoban. It's a great honour to me to realise that the Quebécois think of me as one of their own. For me, it's a bonus. I'm some kind of product of the lucky generation which benefited by the two cultures and I did well by it. It's a great advantage which isn't given to many people. We are able to benefit a bit from the advantages of true bilingualism. It's the same generation which made the link between assimilation and non-assimilation. Before assimilation they were mono-lingual, and afterwards, they are still mono-lingual!

His family, originally from Quebéc, arrived in Manitoba at the start of the century [20th] when land was given to encourage people to settle in the West. They held onto their traditions and their language for almost half a century. "A Quebécois who arrived at my little village at Christmas in 1932 would have seen sledges and horses around the cowshed at midnight, he would have assisted at the midnight mass and would have heard the sermon in French. He would believe himself to be in Quebéc. On the other hand, if he returned now, he would know himself to be in Manitoba".

Don't you fear that Quebéc will be assimilated one day?
Yes, I believe that it is very possible. It would be a pity for Quebéc to fall victim to assimilation … because Quebéc has something good and special in its lifestyle for us all here on the globe. If we lost it we would lose some colour, as if we had eliminated light blue or Burgundy red from the range of colours. In the past, we've lost lots of languages and dialects off the Earth which were spoken once. But I tend to think what will be will be. If Quebéc is to survive, it will survive.

On his arrival in Quebéc, Lavoie was attracted by the energy of the people around him. "I discovered a world without fear, with no shame in saying just how things were. I was brought up in a very enclosed environment. I really felt myself to be very much at home here. I found that which I had in my little village but on the scale of an entire province. It was certainly one of the reasons which made me chose Quebéc.

Daniel Lavoie is preparing himself to start up a brilliant career in the international English-speaking market. The modest album slides along where we are used to seeing and hearing him without deviating from urban violence and the tragedy of life for the young today but it has an originality.

Father of two children, separated by a generation (his elder one is 18 and the younger one is age 3). Daniel Lavoie composed his songs whilst observing the malaise of teenagers nowadays. About 5 or 6 songs convey his disquiet for the young who have to make it, faced with a hard urban reality as we approach the year 2000. That is why "Growing up in the 90's" was originally going to be the title of the album.

His concerns as a father had inspired him to add an emotion almost as palpable as it was sincere, "It's this which moves me deeply, it's the helplessness of the young who face a world which they find hostile and inhospitable." But Lavoie is not a moraliser and he's never fallen into the trap of being virtuous. It's at the beginning of his personal observations in which he deals with violence in towns and he also talks about delinquent kids without delving in too deeply. "There's no solutions in my songs, I tend to shout about a moment of intense emotion. "Running into walls" and "High Road to Mandalay" deal with the stories of kids who have serious problems, one being suicide and the other one who is about to kill. They have to find their own answers. Hope in this world is hard to find. I am disturbed that many kids don't believe that happiness exists.

In spite of the words of our century, for Daniel Lavoie the human sentiments like friendship and love bring him hope. "Love, friendship and sharing are important and will never change. In forgetting ourselves we become contented. There's no need to leave the house and go thousands of kilometres to see how it is, one only has to read a newspaper or look at the television. Kids form part of the consumer society where their needs are created by television and the cinema."

When you have big problems, how do you solve them?
It's very rare that I have real problems. What I need to do is to come to a complete stop, talk to myself for a couple of seconds, meditate a bit, relax… and to say everything is fine, it's quite extraordinary. It all falls back into place. I am also aware at that time that there are thousands of people who live in times of anguish, inescapable, frightful and unbearable. Take Sarajevo as an example. We're lucky to live here. One isn't aware of where one could be. We are spoilt brats who do not appreciate what we have. One doesn't last a week in Sarajevo without being aware at the time that one is lucky to live here.

What is it which best feeds the heart?
It's love, always love. It's true …this little link, this glue, created out of I know not what, which unites us to others, I don't know exactly what it is but it is something extraordinary and magnificent, it makes even the wicked to be able to be tender-hearted. Love is "Belle" in "Long Courrier". It's love which, on passing through all the suffering and horrors in the world, raises it's head and says "I love you".

Is it that what makes a song successful?
A good song, it's that point in time and space together with the words and the music that begin to make you forget the words, the music and the singer, it's truly magic, a song is just something marvellous!

Definitely, Daniel Lavoie is a big softy!