André Fortin

André Fortin, author, singer, musician, performer as born on November 17, 1962, in Saint-Thomas-Didyme in Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean, Québec (Canada). André Fortin was tenth in a family of eleven children. He studied cinema in the early 1980s at the Cégep du Vieux Montréal and went on to study cinematography at the Université de Montréal. In 1985, Fortin got a job as a television editor for shows such as Surprise Sur Prise, 100 Limites and the Bulletin d'information on Télé-Métropole. In 1989, he worked on the filming of the video Libérez le trésor by Michel Rivard. 2116 Saint-Laurent Blvd., where Louis Léger and Dédé Fortin lived in Montréal, was the place to be for discussion, writing and creativity. This is where the happy band would record its self-titled first album, Les Colocs (1993). Joining Dédé Fortin were Mike Sawatzky (electric guitar, slide guitar, harmonica and saxophone), Serge Robert (bass, doublebass and vocals) who would later make his career under the name Mononc'Serge, Bourgoing (drums, backup vocals and percussion) and other friends such as Robert Finkel and Joel Zifkin. Their first album was a commercial success selling more than 150,000 copies, going platinum in Canada. The song "Julie" quickly rose to the top of the Québec charts. Insisting on creating the video himself using stop-motion animation, Fortin invested himself completely in the project and the result was a true masterpiece. In 2001, Rendez-vous du cinéma Québécois paid him a posthumous tribute for this work. In the summer of 1999, Les Colocs were applauded by 40,000 fans on the Plains of Abraham and they won the Prix Miroir de la chanson d'expression française du Festival d'été de Québec. Nearly a year later, on 8 May 2000, Dédé Fortin took his own life in his apartment on Rachel Street. His death also marked the end of Les Colocs.