| Natasha St-Pier | |
| Background: | solo_singer |
| Birth Name: | Natasha St-Pier |
| Birth Date: | 1981 2, df=y |
| Birth Place: | Bathurst, New Brunswick, Canada |
| Origin: | Saint-Hilaire, New Brunswick, Canada |
| Genre: | Pop, French pop, pop/rock, adult contemporary, dance |
| Occupation: | Singer |
| Label: | Guy Cloutier Communications, Sony Music France |
| Years Active: | 1996–present |
Natasha St-Pier (born 10 February 1981) is a Canadian singer and songwriter of Acadian origin. She has spent most of her career in France, and represented France in the 2001 Eurovision Song Contest with the song "Je n'ai que mon âme" (English translation: "I have only my soul").
She began her professional career at a young age in Canada, bringing out her first single at the age of 12, followed by her first album (Émergence) in 1996, at the age of 15. Her international career was launched with the English version of the musical Notre-Dame de Paris, which played in Canada and the U.K. In the musical she sang the role of Fleur-de-Lys.
St-Pier has had considerable commercial success in francophone countries, including France, Canada, Belgium and Switzerland. She has also become popular in a number of other countries, including Spain, Poland, Russia, Turkey and Japan. Her Eurovision song ("Je n'ai que mon âme") reached second position on the charts in France and Belgium when released as a single in 2001. In the following year, her single "Tu trouveras" ('You will find') reached position no. 3 in France and Belgium, and position no. 1 in Quebec. In 2006, her single "Un ange frappe à ma porte" ('An angel is knocking at my door') reached no. 1 in Belgium and no. 2 in France. Her albums De l'amour le mieux (2002) and Longueur d'ondes (2006) also reached places 3 and 1 respectively in French album sales.
St-Pier has spoken in interviews about the importance of her Catholic faith to her. She has recorded three albums based on the poems of St Thérèse of Lisieux: Thérèse – Vivre d'amour (2013), Thérèse de Lisieux – Aimer c'est tout donner (2018) and Croire (2020). She has also released the album Jeanne (2022), focused on St Joan of Arc.
St-Pier was coach in the second and third season of The Voice Belgique (The Voice of Belgium).
Natasha St-Pier was born 10 February 1981 at Bathurst, New Brunswick (Canada) and grew up in Saint-Hilaire, New Brunswick, a small village in the valley of the Saint John River near Edmundston. Both of her parents are ethnically Acadian. Her father, Mario Saint-Pierre, was a primary school teacher who became teacher in a prison for minors and later director of the prison. Later he worked in the police and the river brigade. Her mother, Rose-Marie Bard was a nurse, before becoming director of a retirement home.[1] In April 2013, Natasha St-Pier stated during a broadcast of the radio programme Faites entrer l'invité (presented by Michel Drucker) that she is a cousin four times removed of Pope Pius X.[2]
At the age of 12 years, St-Pier released her first single: "Le parcours du cœur".[3] In August 1996, when she was 15 years old, she released her first album Émergence, produced by the Canadian songwriter-producer Steve Barakatt, which made her known in Canada.
She commenced her international career at the age of 17, under the management of Guy Cloutier, singing the role of Fleur-de-Lys in the English version of the musical Notre-Dame de Paris, which played in Canada and the U.K. In the same year, she completed her baccalaureate.[4] [5]
On 3 April 2001, Natasha St-Pier brought out her second album À chacun son histoire, which gained Gold certification in France.[6] It included the power ballad "Je n'ai que mon âme", with music and lyrics written by Robert Goldman (as "Jill Kapler"), the brother of Jean-Jacques Goldman. St-Pier appeared as supporting act for the Québecois singer Garou at Olympia (Paris).[4]
In 2001, St-Pier was chosen by the media network France 3 to represent France in the 2001 Eurovision Song Contest in Copenhagen. In the video clip, she had sung the song entirely in French. Several days before the contest, she revealed in a media interview that she was undecided as to whether to use English or not in her coming performance of the song at Eurovision. On 12 May 2001, she performed the song under its French title; she sang the song 2/3 in French, but the last verse in English.[7] She was given 12 points (the maximum score) by Bosnia & Herzegovina, Portugal and Russia, and gained fourth place overall among the 23 participants.[7] Her performance was the seventh time a French contestant had gained 4th place since the beginning of the competition, and was not again equalled until the second place gained by Barbara Pravi in 2021. St-Pier released the song as a single the same year, and later an English version of the song: "All I Have Is My Soul".
In 2002, her collaboration with Pascal Obispo on the album De l'amour le mieux propelled Natasha St-Pier to her greatest commercial success. The album was certified as double platinum status in France,[8] and gold in Canada, Belgium and Swizerland.[9] [10] [11] Three tracks from the album were released as singles ("Tu trouveras", "Nos rendez-vous" and "Alors on se raccroche".) All three singles reached the top 100 singles, and "Tu trouveras" was certified platinum in France and Belgium and no. 1 in Quebec.[12] [13]
The album was released in slightly different versions in France, Canada, Japan and Spain. The Spanish version featured three tracks remastered in Spanish, including "Encontrarás" ("Tu trouveras"), with Miguel Bosé singing the male role taken by Pascal Obispo in the French original.[14]
By 2010, St-Pier had released 7 albums, topped the French album and singles charts, and made it to the top 10 of the Eurochart Hot 100. St Pier has become popular in francophone Europe, and in countries such as Poland and Russia.[15] Her seventh album, Tu Trouveras: 10 Ans De Succès, which is largely a "Best of" compilation of her songs previously recorded, was released in November 2009. During 2010 she toured Canada, Belgium and France.
In 2004, Sony Music France released a Natasha St-Pier DVD, Un Instant Avec Natasha St-Pier, that included a video tour diary, a personal video dictionary, and seven music videos.[16]
St-Pier has recorded duos (and trios) with Pascal Obispo, Florent Pagny, Mickaël Miro, Anggun, Élisa Tovati, Sonia Lacen, Grégory Turpin, Les Stentors, Les Petits Chanteurs à la croix de bois, Jean-Michel Di Falco, Roch Voisine, Tony Carreira, Michel Fugain, Grégoire, Florent Mothe, Hélène Segara, Vincent Niclo, Anne Sila and Glorious, among others. She has also appeared in the troupe of Les Enfoirés.
Since September 2013, Natasha is the host of the television show "Les chansons d'abord" (Songs First) to France 3. She was also one of the commentators of the Eurovision Song Contest 2014 for French television.[17] In October 2015 St-Pier, signed to the Smart label, released the album Mon Acadie, a collection of covers of traditional folk songs.
Beginning 2001-2004, the French media began referring to St-Pier as one of the grandes voix québécoises (big Quebecois voices) at the centre of contemporary trends in popular music. Other singers grouped in this category included Isabelle Boulay, Céline Dion, Lara Fabian, Garou, Daniel Lavoie, Lynda Lemay, Bruno Pelletier and Roch Voisine. However, the musicologist Catherine Rudent concludes that only Boulay, Dion and Fabian truly resemble St-Pier in répertoire, voice and techniques of interpretation. These singers have in common a style inherited from soul music, in which expressive vocality takes priority over the text, making full use of registers of the chest and head, vocal ornamentation and improvisation.[18]
On 9 March 2012, she married her boyfriend of a year and a half, Gregory Quillacq, a member of the aquatic and subaquatic fire brigade of Paris). They married at a private ceremony in Lit-et-Mixe.[19] St-Pier has a son named Bixente Maxime, who underwent a successful heart operation.[20] She is a dietitian, vegetarian[21] and a Catholic. She is also a yoga teacher[22] and an occasional scuba diver. In 2021 she announced she and her husband were separated.
Studio albums
| Year | Album | Charts | Certification | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BEL (WA) [23] | FRA | SWI | QUE (Canada) | ||||
| 1996 | Émergence | — | — | — | — | ||
| 2001 | À chacun son histoire | 23 | 37 | — | — | France: Gold | |
| 2002 | De l'amour le mieux | 3 | 3 | 12 | — | France: Double Platinum | |
| 2003 | Encontrarás (Spanish version of De l'amour le mieux) | — | — | — | — | ||
| L'instant d'après | 6 | 3 | 14 | — | France: Platinum | ||
| 2006 | Longueur d’ondes | 2 | 1 | 11 | — | France: Gold | |
| 2008 | Natasha St-Pier | 16 | 16 | 63 | — | ||
| 2012 | Bonne nouvelle | 11 | 11 | 80 | — | ||
| 2013 | Thérèse – Vivre d'amour | 4 | 2 | — | — | France: Platinum | |
| 2015 | Mon Acadie | 18 | 16 | 62 | 8 | ||
| 2017 | L'alphabet des animaux | 68 | 44 | — | — | ||
| 2018 | Thérèse de Lisieux – Aimer c'est tout donner | 55 | — | 40 | — | France: Gold [24] | |
| 2020 | Croire | — | 31 [25] | — | — | ||
| 2022 | Jeanne | 113 | 52 [26] | — | — | ||
| 2023 | Christmas Album | 20 | 82 [27] | — | — | ||
Rereleases / Compilations
| Year | Album | Charts | Note | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BEL (WA) | FRA | ||||
| 2001 | Je n'ai que mon âme | — | — | Compilation – Best of | |
| 2003 | À chacun son histoire / L'instant d'après | — | 102 | Double CD rerelease | |
| 2004 | À chacun son histoire / De l'amour le mieux | 23 | 37 | Double CD rerelease | |
| 2009 | Tu trouveras... 10 ans de succès | — | — | Compilation – Best of | |
| 2010 | Natasha St-Pier / De l'amour le mieux | — | 117 | Double CD rerelease | |
| Year | Title | Chart positions | Album | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BEL (Wa) | FRA | SWI | TUR | QUE [28] | |||
| 2001 | "Je n'ai que mon âme" | 2 | 2 | — | — | — | À chacun son histoire |
| "All I have is my soul" (English version of "Je n'ai que mon âme") | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| "Tu m’envoles" | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| 2002 | "Tu trouveras" (with Pascal Obispo) | 3 | 3 | 20 | — | 1 | De l'amour le mieux |
| 2003 | "Nos rendez-vous" | 15 | 15 | 45 | — | — | |
| "Alors on se raccroche" | — | 47 | 72 | — | — | ||
| "Encontrarás" ("Tu trouveras" in Spanish (with Miguel Bosé) | — | — | — | — | — | ||
| "Tant que c´est toi" | 5 | 11 | 31 | — | — | L'instant d'après | |
| 2004 | "Mourir demain" (with Pascal Obispo) | 4 | 7 | 18 | — | — | |
| 2005 | "Ce silence" (with Frédéric Chateau) | 25 | 28 | — | — | — | Longueur d'ondes |
| 2006 | "Un ange frappe à ma porte" | 1 | 2 | 19 | — | — | |
| "Tant que j'existerai" | 23 | 36 | — | — | — | ||
| 2008 | "Embrasse-moi" | — | — | — | 12 | — | Natasha St-Pier |
| "1, 2, 3" | — | — | — | 90 | — | ||
| 2009 | "L'instant T" | — | — | — | 73 | — | Tu trouveras... 10 ans de succès |
| 2012 | "Bonne nouvelle" | — | 194 | — | — | — | Bonne nouvelle |
| 2013 | "Vivre d'amour" (with Anggun) | 63 | 86 | — | — | — | Thérèse: Vivre d'amour |
| 2015 | "Tous les Acadiens" | — | — | — | — | — | Mon Acadie |
| 2016 | "Mon pays bleu" | — | — | — | — | — | — |
| 2018 | "Aimer c'est tout donner" | — | — | — | — | — | Thérèse de Lisieux – Aimer c'est tout donner |
| 2020 | "Viens sois ma lumière" | — | — | — | — | — | Croire |
| 2022 | "Jeanne" | — | — | — | — | — | Jeanne |
| Year | Title | Chart positions | Album | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| BEL (Wa) | FRA | SWI | QUE | |||
| 2007 | "Pour que tu sois libre (La rose Marie Claire)" (Leslie / Anggun / Jennifer McCray / Natasha St Pier / Elisa Tovati / Julie Zenatti) | — | 21 | — | — | |
| 2013 | "Donne-moi le temps" (Segara / St Pier / Keim / Alizée / L'Orchestre Ostinato) | 45 | 99 | — | — | |
| 2014 | "Laissez-nous chanter" (live) (Goldman / Fiori / Clerc / Youn / Lorie / Laroque / Foly / Tal / Ségara / St-Pier / Nolwenn Leroy / Zazie) | — | 196 | — | — | |