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Joe Bocan

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Joe Bocan
Background information
Birth nameJohanne Beauchamp
Born1957
Genrespop music
Occupation(s)singer, actress, radio host
Years active1980s–present

Joe Bocanis thestage nameofJohanne Beauchamp(born September 8, 1957), aCanadianpop singer and actress fromQuebec.[1]She is best known for her 1989 single "Repartir à zéro".[1]

Background

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Beginning her career intheatre,[2]she later began performing as a folk singer and won an award from theFestival international de la chanson de Granbyin 1983.[3]

By 1985, she was performing a regular show,Paradoxale,at Le Milieu inMontreal.[2]The show incorporated some of the multimedia performance techniques then being used by contemporaneous artists such asPeter Gabriel,Kate Bush,Laurie AndersonandJane Siberry.[2]In 1986, she was given her first television special onTélévision de Radio-Canada,[4]and was one of the performers at Canada's first major benefit concert forHIV/AIDSalongsideMichel Louvain,Peter Pringle,Denny Christianson andLes Grands Ballets Canadiens.[5]During this era, she also had a regular acting role on the Quebec children's television seriesMinibus.[3]She won aFélix Awardfor Best Pop Show in 1986 forParadoxale.[6]

Bocan also played the role of Carmen Sandiego in the French-Canadian version ofWhere in Time Is Carmen Sandiego?titledÀ la poursuite de Carmen Sandiego(Translation: In Pursuit of Carmen Sandiego) which lasted from 1998-1999.

Recording career

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Her self-titled debut album was released in 1988, and spawned singles including "Paradoxale", "On parle des yeux" and "Repartir à zéro".[7]She led the 1989 Félix nominations with 10 nods, but won only the award for best pop-rock show that year.[8]The following year, she won the Félix for Best Female Singer.[9]

She followed up withLes Désordresin 1991,[10]and had another hit single with "Apocalypso". In this era, she continued to take acting roles in television series such asPiège infernalandLa Mi sắc re des riches.[10]While filmingLa Mi sắc re des riches,she met musician and actor Charles Biddle, Jr., the son of legendary Canadian jazz musicianCharlie Biddle;they soon became a couple and later married.[11]

She released two further albums[12][13]and a greatest hits compilation in the 1990s, and the children's albumLa Comtesse d'Harmonia fait le tour du mondein 2001.[14]Her further acting roles included the filmsMeurtre en musiqueandThe Ideal Man(L'Homme idéal),and the children's television seriesRamdam.[15]

FollowingLa Comtesse d'Harmonia,she left the music business for several years, teaching theatre at the École des Arts de la Scène inJoliette.She returned to music in the 2010s with a second children's album,La Comtesse d'Harmonia - Pour faire danser la terre,in 2011 and a new adult pop album,La loupe,in 2013.[1]

A longtime ally of theLGBTcommunity in Quebec, she debuted in 2015 as a radio host onMontreal's new LGBT-focused radio stationCHRF.[16]She was cohost with Miguel Doucet ofLes Pétards,a daily arts and culture magazine show[17]until the station discontinued its LGBT format in December.

In 2020, Bocan,Marie CarmenandMarie Denise Pelletierannounced the joint concert tourPour une histoire d'un soir,although the tour was delayed by theCOVID-19 pandemic in Quebecand instead launched in 2022.[18]The tour won theFélix Awardfor Variety or Reinterpretation Concert of the Year at the44th Félix Awards.[19]

Discography

[edit]
  • Joe Bocan(1988)
  • Les désordres(1991)
  • Le baiser(1994)
  • Regards(1997)
  • La Comtesse d'Harmonia fait le tour du monde(2001)
  • La Comtesse d'Harmonia - Pour faire danser la terre(2011)
  • La loupe(2013)

References

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  1. ^abc"Joe Bocan: repartir à zéro".La Presse,June 10, 2014.
  2. ^abc"She's no ordinary Joe; Singer Bocan could revive Quebec's pop scene".Montreal Gazette,November 22, 1985.
  3. ^ab"Fresh voice in Quebec music".The Globe and Mail,January 22, 1986.
  4. ^"Story of small-town orchestra will put a song in your heart".Montreal Gazette,january 15, 1986.
  5. ^"AIDS benefit a Canadian first".Montreal Gazette,April 23, 1986.
  6. ^"St-Clair walks off with four Felixes".The Globe and Mail,October 28, 1986.
  7. ^"Quebec singer Joe Bocan to sign autographs".Ottawa Citizen,June 13, 1989.
  8. ^"Roch Voisine cleans up; Lance et Compte star, pop singer skates off with four ADISQ awards".Montreal Gazette,October 16, 1989.
  9. ^"Dion turns down English-artist Felix; Late Gerry Boulet is among other winners at ADISQ gala".Montreal Gazette,October 22, 1990.
  10. ^ab"Bocan sets out to reprise debut success; New album is more radical that first: singer".Montreal Gazette,September 19, 1991.
  11. ^"Bocan, Biddles: together in love and music; One of Quebec's premier show-business couples teams up for stage show".Montreal Gazette,February 6, 1993.
  12. ^"Joe Bocan - Le Baiser".Discogs.1994.Retrieved2019-09-16.
  13. ^"Joe Bocan - Regards".Discogs.1998.Retrieved2019-09-16.
  14. ^La Comtesse d'Harmonia fait le tour du monde by Joe Bocan,retrieved2019-09-16
  15. ^Décroche!,retrieved2019-09-16
  16. ^"La chanteuse Joe Bocan de retour comme animatrice à la radio".La Presse,February 1, 2015.
  17. ^"La chanteuse Joe Bocan coanimera «Les Pétards»".TVA Nouvelles,February 7, 2015.
  18. ^Frédérique De Simone,"«Pour une histoire d'un soir»: un retour en grand".Le Journal de Montréal,May 22, 2022.
  19. ^Louis-Philippe Labrèche,"Les résultats du Premier Gala de l’ADISQ 2022".Le Canal Auditif,November 2, 2022.