| Stéphane Paquette | |
| Background: | solo_singer |
| Alias: | Stef |
| Birth Date: | 18 December 1973 |
| Birth Place: | Chelmsford, Ontario, Canada |
| Occupation: | Singer-songwriter, actor |
| Years Active: | 1993–present |
| Associated Acts: | Les Chaizes Muzikales |
Stéphane "Stef" Paquette (born December 18, 1973., in Chelmsford, Ontario) is a Franco-Ontarian singer-songwriter, actor, and politician.
A founding member of the band Les Chaizes Muzikales in 1993, Paquette launched a solo career in 2002 with his first solo album, L'Homme exponentiel. His second solo album, Salut de l'arrière pays, was released in 2011 and won a number of awards, including the Prix Trille Or from the Association des professionels de la chanson et de la musique in 2013.[1] In January 2014, he won five of the seven prizes at the annual Contact ontarois music competition, with his prize package including an extensive series of music festival bookings across Canada.[2]
In 2009, he appeared on the debut album by Patricia Cano, as a duet vocalist on the track "Nada de nieve". In 2011, he participated as a supporting musician in a reunion tour by the rock band CANO.[3]
In 2012, Paquette released a full length album, Le Salut de l'arrière-pays that he composes with Normand Renaud. In 2015, he followed up with a three-song EP.
After a three-year hiatus in which cinema, television and other projects took a lot of space, Paquette launched the single "Plus belle que toé" in September 2018. Paquette has started to move into the country/bluegrass genre, frequently in collaboration with the Sudbury band Murder Murder.
Paquette is also known as an improv comedian and actor, whose television roles have included Météo+, Les Bleus de Ramville[4] and Hard Rock Medical. Paquette is one of the three lead actors in the feature film Perspective.
In addition, he was also an afternoon host on CHYC-FM in Sudbury, and performed at a rally in Sudbury on 5 April 2009, to protest staff cutbacks at CBCS-FM, the city's CBC Radio One station.[5]
In 2019, Paquette announced his candidacy in the New Democratic Party's nomination contest for Nickel Belt in the 2019 Canadian federal election.[6] He won the nomination and stood second with 32.1% of the vote, 3,390 votes behind the incumbent Liberal MP Marc Serré.