Mélanie Renaud
Mélanie Renaud was born in 1981 in Haiti. A Quebécois couple affiliated with Canadian missionaries in Haiti adopted her and her sister when she was 8 months old and transplanted them to Quebec. She found an early entrée to music, at first with singing telegrams and then participating at age 17 in the 1998 “Grand Concours” of the Festival International de la Chanson de Granby (FICG).
She sang as a backup singer with the Haitian hip-hop duo “Rainmen,” and in 1999 sang the part of the “ange” (“angel”) in Éric Lapointe’s song “Mon Ange” from his album “A l’ombre de l’ange.” That song reached the top of the Québecois francophone charts.
Mélanie and Félix award
When 20 years old in 2001, Mélanie’s own debut album appeared, “Ma liberté” (D7 Recordings). In 2002, the Canadian Independent Music Awards named it the “Album francophone de l’année.” The album included the song featured in this post, “Je m’en veux” (“I blame myself”) which was written by Lapointe, Claude Pineault and Roger Tabra. That same year, she won a Félix award as “Découverte de l’année” (“Revelation of the Year”).
Between 2001 and 2017, Mélanie recorded 5 albums and appeared in stage musicals including the role of Sephora (wife of Moses) in the Quebec City production of “Les dix commandements” (music by Pascal Obispo, lyrics by Lionel Florence and Patrice Guirao).
Mélanie as Esmeralda, 2005
In 2004, she sang Luc Plamondon and Richard Cocciante's song “L’amour existe encore” at the Canadian Fête Nationale concert in Parc Maisonneuve in Montreal. Impressed by her performance, Plamondon gave her the role of Esmeralda in the musical "Notre Dame de Paris." It was a heady and promising beginning that elicited benchmark comparisons to Céline Dion, but in retrospect those early years marked the highpoint of her career. In 2006, following her participation in “Notre Dame de Paris,” which Mélanie found enervating, she spent a week in Haiti, staying in a convent and visiting relatives. By her own account, it was a depressing experience to witness the country's widespread poverty and her relatives' condition.
In following years, Renaud struggled to resurrect the promise of her early career. Her albums received mixed reviews and she struggled to interest producers in new songs. Her second album in 2005 titled “Mélanie Renaud” received a poor reception. This led her to make a radical 180-degree stylistic turn to R&B and Hip-hop with her third album "Feux d’artifice" ("Fireworks") released in 2008. That shift and the album did not resonate with critics or fans.
She fell into bouts of depression and drug use. Her manager Nicolas Lemieux at GSI Music cut her loose in 2012 because of a "bad attitude," though they reconciled 5 years later. It was four years until her next album “What’s Going On” appeared in 2012. It featured a smorgasbord of popular song “covers” in English performed originally by Whitney Houston, Annie Lenox, Michael Jackson, Marvin Gaye and others.
In 2017, she released a single “Laisse le soleil briller” ("Let the sun shine") composed and written by Claude Sénécal. In that song, she pleads: "Laisse pas le soleil se coucher" ("Don't let the sun go down"). The same year, her fifth and last album, “Fil de fer” ("Iron wire"), appeared with the title song written and composed by her own hand. Perhaps reflecting her mental state, she sings in it: "Je me balance entre ciel et terre sur un fil de fer" ("I sway between sky and earth on an iron wire").
Her life prospects and finances were undermined in 2016 by a diagnosis of incurable ovarian cancer and its attendant medical treatments. She died when only 42 years old in 2024 in La Prairie, Quebec. Her early hit song “Je m’en veux” remains her most-streamed piece online. She sang it many times, but the version featured below is an unvarnished, late acoustic rendition in 2023 that amplifies the passion and strength of her voice which she performed shortly before her death.
In following years, Renaud struggled to resurrect the promise of her early career. Her albums received mixed reviews and she struggled to interest producers in new songs. Her second album in 2005 titled “Mélanie Renaud” received a poor reception. This led her to make a radical 180-degree stylistic turn to R&B and Hip-hop with her third album "Feux d’artifice" ("Fireworks") released in 2008. That shift and the album did not resonate with critics or fans.
She fell into bouts of depression and drug use. Her manager Nicolas Lemieux at GSI Music cut her loose in 2012 because of a "bad attitude," though they reconciled 5 years later. It was four years until her next album “What’s Going On” appeared in 2012. It featured a smorgasbord of popular song “covers” in English performed originally by Whitney Houston, Annie Lenox, Michael Jackson, Marvin Gaye and others.
In 2017, she released a single “Laisse le soleil briller” ("Let the sun shine") composed and written by Claude Sénécal. In that song, she pleads: "Laisse pas le soleil se coucher" ("Don't let the sun go down"). The same year, her fifth and last album, “Fil de fer” ("Iron wire"), appeared with the title song written and composed by her own hand. Perhaps reflecting her mental state, she sings in it: "Je me balance entre ciel et terre sur un fil de fer" ("I sway between sky and earth on an iron wire").
Her life prospects and finances were undermined in 2016 by a diagnosis of incurable ovarian cancer and its attendant medical treatments. She died when only 42 years old in 2024 in La Prairie, Quebec. Her early hit song “Je m’en veux” remains her most-streamed piece online. She sang it many times, but the version featured below is an unvarnished, late acoustic rendition in 2023 that amplifies the passion and strength of her voice which she performed shortly before her death.
Mélanie Renaud Song
“Je m’en veux,” 2001, Album: Ma Liberté