Songwriter and composer Stéphane Venne, one of Quebec’s most influential musical artists of the 20th century, died Friday in Saint-Hyacinthe. He was 83.
His wife, Marie Dumais, said in a phone interview Saturday that he suffered from an unknown illness and had been hospitalized for the past two weeks. Mr. Venne chose to have medical assistance in dying.
The Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame, which inducted Mr. Venne in 2017, described him as “one of the most brilliant songwriters of his generation.” Starting out in the mid-1960s, he was known early on for his song Un jour, un jour, interpreted by Donald Lautrec and chosen as the official theme song of Expo 67 in Montreal.
“Overnight, a lot of people started asking me for songs,” Mr. Venne told Le Journal de Montréal in 2017. “It changed my life in exactly the way I wanted it to.”
Mr. Venne, who was born in Montreal in 1941, estimated that he created more than 400 songs. His most notable partnership was with singer Renée Claude, for whom he wrote more than 50 songs including classics such as Le tour de la terre (1969), Tu trouveras la paix (1971) and Le début d’un temps nouveau (1970), which captured the spirit of the Quiet Revolution era and became an unofficial anthem for the sovereigntist Parti Québécois. He also penned many songs for Isabelle Pierre, including Les enfants de l’avenir (1970) and Le temps est bon (1971).
He created the Sol-7 record label in 1972 and contributed nearly 30 songs to the repertoire of singer Emmanuelle, including Le monde à l’envers and Et c’est pas fini (both from 1973). The latter introduced Mr. Venne’s work to a younger audience when it became the theme song of the first edition of Star Académie, a popular amateur singing contest and reality TV show, in 2003. He collaborated with the contest’s winner, Marie-Élaine Thibert, writing the hit song Le ciel est à moi (2004), among others.
Some of Mr. Venne’s songs “are perfect,” La Presse arts columnist Mario Girard wrote. “Stéphane Venne was one of the greatest melodists of his generation. But we forget to say that he was also a great poet.”
According to the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame, Mr. Venne “is a true goldsmith” and “even his lesser-known songs are little lyrical gems wrapped in fine-tuned and polished arrangements and melodies one has to listen to over and over to fully appreciate.”
In his induction speech, Mr. Venne said he “worked for all sorts of extraordinary voices, extraordinary singers … I thanked them from the bottom of my heart because, without them, I wouldn’t exist.”
In the mid-1980s, he took a step back from music and started working in various private and public communications roles. He most recently worked for the City of Montreal’s water services but resigned in October after a controversy involving filmmaker, writer and researcher Léa Clermont-Dion.
Very active on social media platform X, Mr. Venne commented that Ms. Clermont-Dion’s facial expression in a picture posted online represented a kind of sexual invitation. The comment was denounced as misogynistic.
Several public figures reacted to Mr. Venne’s death. On X, Quebec Premier François Legault wrote that Mr. Venne “leaves us an immense musical legacy with songs that have marked several generations and that have resonated throughout the French-speaking world.”
“Thank you Mr. Venne, for your unforgettable songs and for your contribution to Quebec music,” he wrote.
Bloc Québécois leader Yves-François Blanchet also thanked Mr. Venne on X, describing him as an eloquent erudite, a notable author of the Quiet Revolution and of “a Quebec that he wanted to be a country.”
Asked how he would like to be remembered after he died in an interview with Télé-Québec, Mr. Venne said he hoped people would think he had been “useful for something.”