Quebec loses “the most Quebecer of Quebecers”

“A giant”, “a very intense guy”, “the most Quebecer of Quebecers”: on this Saint-Jean-Baptiste day, the Quebec cultural environment spoke of love to pay tribute to Serge Fiori, who died on Tuesday at the age of 73.

In the surge of tributes which followed the announcement of his death, a consensus emerged: Fiori was anything but A musician among so many others.

He was a unique musician, among the othersnotably underlined the author Claude Meunier, who knew Serge Fiori in his early days, while he was working on a play – the embryo of Neighbors – at university. The musician was responsible for music and wrote what was going to become that ofHarmonium.

He already composed incredible music at that age at that ageinsisted Claude Meunier in RDI. He was completely inhabited by music et His music has always been so moving.

The guitarist, singer-songwriter and leader of the Harmonium group died on Tuesday morning natural causes in Lac-Saint-Jean, at the age of 73.

Serge left as he lived, with that legendary smile that radiated on all those who knew him, all those to whom he knew how to provide immense joy, and on this country which was his, in his heart and in his eternal crazeannounced in a press release her manager and friend Serge Grimaux.

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The harmonium journey was ephemeral, but the songs from his three albums still resonate as much as they were published in the 1970s.

In the 1970s, Serge Fiori and Harmonium didn’t need to tryremembered Louis Valois, bass player and founding member of the legendary group with emotion. We did it naturally, whether it goes or it breaks.

Music no longer belongs to Harmoniumestimated Louis Valois. It belongs now in Quebecers.

For Quebecers, it is as if we were losing a member of our family.

I am devastatedhe said, crying for the death of a deep friend.

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A humble guy

He was a great guy. You have no idea how I will miss itdropped his great friend, the humorist Michel Barrette, in an interview to here RDI. Fiori was a tender, fragile man, he said.

It is still special that the most Quebecers of Quebecers died on June 24he pointed out.

Car flowers had Quebec at heartrecalled Louis Valois. He chose his date!

Everyone also underlined his great humility and the discomfort he felt before the adulation that revolved around him. Serge Fiori, however, left us in splendor, perhaps despite himself, in a day so significant for Quebecers.

Serge Fiori Don’t do things by halfeven until the moment of leaving, underlined the keyboardist Serge Locat, who joined the group from the second album, The five seasons.

He has a way of going to look for ideas, I don’t know how he was doingrecalled Mr. Locat. Anyway, he was always going At the end of his ideashe added.

Another of the founding members of Harmonium, Michel Normandeau, rememberedA very intense, very creative guy Who sometimes got angry so much he was good. I went to bed and, the next day, I woke up and he had finished the song. My God it was beautiful!

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After a lion’s start to a career, Mr. Fiori was held far from the spotlight, rarely appearing in public, among others because of an anxiety that he learned to manage over time, recalled his biographer and ex-conjoint, Louise Thériault, on RDI.

He was adored like a guru, but it was not himshe explained. At the time, fanatics even camped in front of his home, in the hope of seeing him in the morning. His moments in the shadows have done him good.

He gave the Quebec people so much love, so much pride, so much patriotism.

A perpetual work

The Prime Minister of Quebec, François Legault, recalled that […] His work has helped to redefine the Place de la Musique in Quebec. The three harmonium albums have become cult albums for our nation. He put words and melodies on what we were going through and what we were.

Serge Fiori was a huge lyricist and melodist, the tunes of his songs have been accompanying us for over 50 years and will continue to do it again in the futurewrote on X the leader of the Parti Québécois, Paul Saint-Pierre Plamondon, who took part Tuesday in the Saint-Jean parade in Montreal.

The singer of the favorite group of an entire generation also accompanied René Lévesque on tour in California to introduce the vitality of Quebec music in the United Statesrecalled the head of sovereignist training.

It is eternal, deeply human and current musicsaid the spokesperson for Québec Solidaire, Ruba Ghazal. It was so Quebec and deeply universal music at the same time.

Thank you for everything, Sergewrote on X the Federal Minister of Canadian Identity and Culture, Steven Guilbeault. “We gave birth to someone, we may have to listen to it …” We have listened to you a lot, and we will continue to do it.

The chief of the Bloc Québécois, Yves-François Blanchet, he said In shock, at the same time of the year who lives and rejoices in his music and his dream of seeing Quebec be a country. We loved him with love, this man.