argia.eus
INPRIMATU
Raymond Lévesque, the great singer of Quebec dies
  • The legendary Quebetan singer Raymond Lévesque has died at the age of 92 in the hands of COVID-19. He has been a poet, a storyteller and a great interpreter, but above all he has been highly valued in his land as a singer and a composer. She has worked as an advocate of Quebec’s culture and nationality.
Pello Zubiria Kamino @pellozubiria 2021eko otsailaren 17a
Raymond Lévesque kantaria Montrealen hil da 92 urterekin.

Born in Montreal (Quebec) in 1928, Raymond Lévesque died in Montreal at the age of 92, leaving five hundred songs, five plays, 50 pieces of humor, seven books of poems and other publications on the road. The greatest popularity among all was given from the beginning to Lévesque the songs, and above all the Quand les hommes vivront d'amour (When people live in love) that still many Quebequeses know in memory, which was created by the feelings that inspired him by the French war in Algeria in 1956:

 

More than a couple dozen artists have made versions of this excellent song that has been mentioned as the most beloved of the Quebequeses and in Euskal Herria we have met several Basques from the Quebec album of Joseba Tapia, with the translations of Koldo Izagirre and Itxaro Borda and the adaptations of Pascal Gaigne. Love will become the title of the song Quand les hommes vivront d'amour, which has enthusiastically rehearsed in any militancy such as the one that has had the honor of being a warrior in any war:

 

After studying music as a young man on the radio and in the cabarets of Montreal, he moved to Paris between 1954 and 1959, the time at which the song belongs. Returning to Québec, he continued to make television shows and create songs, usually sung by other singers. In 1980, he lost his hearing and stopped singing, but he continued to do literature for many years.

In the 1960s, the sovereign movement of Quebec began, in which Lévesse participated enthusiastically, proclaiming independence. At that time there was also an armed movement, the Quebec Liberation Front (FLQ) and specifically the song "Bozo les culottes" that Tapia sang in Euskera "Bozo galtzaundi" telling the story of a imprisoned member of the band:

 

 

In 2005, the Governor General of Canada, representing the Queen of England, a member of the Commonweath community, who is recognised as the supreme sovereign, wanted to award him the highest prize, but Lévesse refused to grant him on the grounds that he has always proclaimed his independence in Quebec.

Raymond Lévesque has died without seeing his sovereign homeland, and certainly, like most of the old, in memory of those times of his irrecoverable youth, as he had done with this magnificent song: