Daniel Lavoie

Daniel Lavoie (born March 17, 1949) is a French-Canadian singer and songwriter. Born in Dunrea, Manitoba, Canada, his mother was a musician and he learned to play piano at a young age. In 1967, Lavoie won a singer-songwriter competition for the Société Radio-Canada French language television program, Jeunesse oblige which gave him his first major publicity. The young franco-manitoban played and sang in English and French with two different groups but his singing career began to blossom following a 1970 tour in the province of Quebec. Within a few years he was equally as popular in France as he was in Canada, headlining at Bobino and the Olympia in Paris. His album Nirvana bleu (recorded in 1979) was one of his bestsellers ever. Daniel Lavoie starred in the highly successful musical play, Notre-Dame de Paris, in which he played the part of Frollo. He has written music for motion pictures including the Ludovic series of animated short films.