Aglaé

Aglaé, real name Jocelyne Deslongchamps, was born on May 13, 1933 in L'Épiphanie, Quebec, Canada. At the very end of the 1940s, she had an appointment with the manager of a Montreal cabaret, the Faisan Doré. The beautiful nights of Montreal are animated by a whole group of merrymakers. Jacques Normand, Charles Aznavour and Pierre Roche, a singer, musician and lyricist. It was Pierre Roche who first heard Jocelyne Deslongchamp sing, and who advised the manager of Le Faisan Doré to give her a chance. In the early 1950s, she left Montreal for Paris. She conquered Paris under the name Aglaé . Aglaé was the title of one of her songs. Félix Leclerc, who was to make a name for himself in France at the same time as she did, advised her to use it as her artist's name. From 1952 to 1956, she performed at the Olympia and Bobino. In fact, she was the first Quebecker to perform there. Her reputation now spread to Europe, and audiences were eager to hear her sing "La sauvage du nord", "Dans nos campagnes", "Aglaé" or "L'amour m'est venu". Then came the adventure of Méditerranée, a large-scale operetta with Tino Rossi. Aglaé scored several hits on record, including "Marie-toi", "À présent tu peux t'en aller" and "Dans mes bras oublie ta peine" . In 1966, she put an end to her singing career and turned to fashion. She succumbed to bone cancer on April 19, 1984, at the Maisonneuve Hospital in Montreal, aged 50. On her death, Pierre Gravel wrote in La Presse Montréal, April 22, 1984: "Far ahead of Gilles Vigneault, Edith Butler, Ginette Reno and Jean Lapointe, Aglaé embodied a certain Quebecois reality in France. Through such turlutes as her signature song "Aglaé" or "Dans nos campagnes" or "Tout le long de la rivière", she was the first to assume, without false shame, her Québécois identity in front of a French audience."

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