André "Dédé" Fortin (1962-2000) was an important singer-songwriter of the Quebec music scene of the 1990s. He was the frontman of the music group Les Colocs.

Profile

Dédé Fortin was a singer and songwriter born in the Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean region of Quebec, in a farm close to the village of Saint-Thomas-Didyme. Having been a student in cinema at the Université de Montréal, he was also an admired music video filmmaker. He brought to the lyrics of his band, Les Colocs, humanity, simplicity and social conscience (especially about poverty). He was also a passionate believer in Quebec independence and brought his band to take a prominent role in the YES side of the 1995 Quebec referendum.

Fortin was sometimes a tortured soul. The often festive flavor of the melodies of his band is in sharp contrast to his tragic end: he died following the long agony of a self-inflicted knife wound to the heart in his apartment in the Plateau Mont-Royal neighborhood of Montreal, on May 10, 2000. For days, flowers and loving messages were left at the doorstep of his apartment building on Rachel Street, in honor of a man who embodied the music of a whole generation of Quebecois.

Upon the discovery of his suicide, a poem was found. Condemned by doubt, immobile and timorous; I am like my people, undecisive and a dreamer; I speak to who wants to hear of my fictive country; The heart full of vertigo and consumed by fear. André "Dédé" Fortin is now considered a major figure in the history of Quebec music.

See also

• Les Colocs
• List of Saguenéens
• List of Quebec musicians
• List of Quebec film directors
• Music of Quebec
• Culture of Quebec
• Quebec sovereigntism