rene simard - The Talent House

Phone:
Fax:
Email:
416-960-9686
416-960-2314
[email protected]
204A St. George Street
Toronto, ON
M5R 2N5
RENE SIMARD
ACTRA/ CAEA
Singer, TV show-host born in Chicoutimi, Que, 28 Feb 1961. His father was a choirmaster on the Île
d'Orléans where he spent his childhood. At nine René was the prize winner on the program 'Les
Découvertes de Jen Roger' (CFTM-TV, Montreal). This brought him to the attention of the impresario
Guy Cloutier, who quickly made the boy soprano an international pop music star. With his first show at
the PDA in 1971, the 'p'tit Simard' (famous for a pudding ad) captured the hearts of Quebec audiences,
as did his first hit recordings: 'Ave Maria,' 'L'Oiseau,' and 'Un enfant comme les autres,' all for Nobel,
Cloutier's production company. In 1974 he represented Canada at the International Festival of Song in
Tokyo, where he won first prize for performance and the Frank Sinatra trophy, which was presented by
Sinatra himself. Acclaimed in Japan and also in Paris, where he made his debut at the Olympia in 1975,
Simard embarked on a career in the English-speaking world. He appeared frequently on the US TV
networks, with artists such as Bing Crosby, Bob Hope, Liza Minnelli, and Andy Williams, and with
Liberace both in Las Vegas and in 1977 on tour. That year he returned to Quebec to sing in 25 towns.
He was host 1977-9 of 'The René Simard Show,' a CBC English-language TV variety series produced
in Vancouver showing a preference for a US style of performance.
René Simard passed smoothly through the voice-change period, and he maintained his popularity, the
result of a carefully selected repertoire consisting of sentimental ballads such as 'Ma mère est un ange'
(written by his brother Régis) disco songs, and rock melodies which easily appealed to a wide audience
of all ages. Among his other major hits of that period are 'Les dimanches après-midi' (1974), 'Maman,
laisse-moi sortir ce soir' (1975), 'Bébé bleu' (1975), 'Fernando' (1976), 'Bienvenue à Montréal' (theme
song of the 1976 Montreal Olympics), 'Never Know the Reason Why' (1977), and 'You're My
Everything' (1978). At the beginning of the 1980s, René Simard abandoned his teenage image for that
of a seductive young man with more of a rock look. With his sister Nathalie Simard, he hosted two live
TV programs from Disneyworld in Florida and Disneyland in California. He subsequently participated
in Jerry Lewis' telethon in Las Vegas. In 1984-5, he hosted 'R.S.V.P'. at Télé-Métropole. His record
Tourne la page (1987), recorded with Nathalie, helped to confirm his change of image. In 1988 he
hosted the CBC TV program 'Laser 33-45' where he became a promoter of songs in the French
language.
He has appeared in the documentary films Un Enfant comme les autres (1972) and René Simard au
Japon (1974) and he took part in the Quebec feature film J'ai mon voyage (1974) and CFTM-TV's
teleplay 'Les Berger.'
Assessing Simard's popularity, Patrick Conlon wrote: 'Simard's impish onstage exuberance appeals
particularly to young girls (who want to marry him) and older women (who want to mother him)... He
works the audience to the limit, strutting and grinning across the stage (Maclean's, 3 Nov 1975). After
his second engagement at the PDA Linda Nantel wrote in Photo-Journal (19 Dec 1977) that 'his
superior talent and great facility of expression have made him ''great'' in every sense that word
encompasses of professionalism.'