Gaston Mandeville

Born in Drummondville, Canada, on November 23, 1956, and died in Montreal, Canada, on June 16, 1997, Gaston Mandeville was a Quebec folk singer. In 1980, he released his first album, Mandeville, with his first radio hit "Le Vieux du bas du fleuve ". That same year, he opened for Chris de Burgh at the Grand Théâtre de Québec. In 1981, at the opening of the Festival d'été de Québec on the Plains of Abraham, he opened for Diane Dufresne and Yvon Deschamps. After a few years' absence, the hits returned with his fourth album, Comme Un Teenager in 1986. The songs "Downtown samedi", "En plein cœur de l'été" and "Teenager en amour" hit the Quebec radio charts. In 1989, he released the album Où Sont Passés les Vrais Rebelles with the title track, which became an instant hit. Between 1989 and 1991, Gaston Mandeville performed several shows in France, notably at the Francofolies de La Rochelle. He also collaborated with several artists, including Gildor Roy on the song "Une Autre chambre d'hôtel" in 1993, for which he wrote the lyrics. He recorded his sixth album in 1994, En Route Pour l'An 2000, and toured Quebec the following year, playing over 50 shows. In 1996, he was diagnosed with bone cancer. Until his death in June 1997, he released two new albums, Les Années Folk (autumn 1996) and Huit (spring 1997).