Surrounded by his extended family, his friends and even the clerk at his favorite store, our great national troubadour sat down live on national television Saturday night to talk about love and friendship.
Piché also could not hold back her tears in the first moments of the broadcast, which laid the foundation for this hour in which friendship, love and family spirit enveloped this other great evening of television with the signature of France Beaudoin.
“Kidnapped” by the hostess and her team, all with the participation of his partner Isabel Philion Labelle, the great Paul lived this hour nervously. “I am a big mother. “I’m going to cry all evening,” he said, even before the first artists sat down for the opening medley.
Stéphanie St-Jean, whose talent he admires, opened the evening. It’s true that the Gatinoise has a unique voice and she proved it again on Saturday evening. It was nice to see the winner of the 2016 edition of La Voix again. Marc Hervieux, Damien Robitaille, Florence K, Alain Lamontagne and Léo Piché, the evening guest’s son, shone in this first number.
There were also his musical accomplices Audrey-Michèle, Rick Haworth and Jean-Sébastien Fournier, who offered him a piece by James Taylor, while Dave Morissette even entered his house to sing a song.
Richard Séguin on video and Ingrid St-Pierre live and on the piano increased the emotion index by several levels. We said to ourselves at that moment that nothing could match this performance because the two artists were able to touch their friend. But we didn’t know what would await us later on this plateau.
Humble beginnings
Paul Piché’s career spans five decades. He influenced many musicians, many of whom learned to play guitar to his songs. “Yes, it’s true that several guitarists have played my songs,” he said.
France Beaudoin also referenced her beginnings as a singer, which prompted Paul Piché to recall his beginnings in the bars of Old Quebec.
“The character of Paul Piché was revealed in Quebec,” he recalls. I was born on Rue Saint-Jean, so to speak. »
To capture this important moment in his career, the cameras of En Direct de l’Univers focused on the popular street of the capital, where the duo 2Frères was waiting to perform Y’a pas grand-chose dans l’ciel a night.
Paul Piché also remembered his first guitar, which he carried over his shoulder from one bar to another. “My first guitar was called Maggie for “my guitar… Tara,” he says with a small smile. My family wasn’t very rich and it was my brother-in-law’s brother, Robert Bédard, who lent it to me. I actually never gave it to him, but it was clear from the start that he would never see it again! »
The family man
Paul Piché, as we have clearly seen, is a family man. His clan was very present in the studio and even on stage.
When his son Léo offered him one of his own songs, Piché praised his offspring highly. “I admire his talent as a musician and director. It is very important to me, in my career and in my projects,” he confessed.
And when the host also asked him about the family around him, he didn’t hesitate to reveal himself. “I had three children and raised seven,” he explains. My little guy, Félix, is 10 years old, I just got him. Being a father and parent is something very big, even if not all of our biological children are. »
Well anchored in the world of Piché, this evening could only increase in emotions. Julie Snyder and her daughter Romy brought out the tissues, but perhaps not as much as the interpretation of L’Escalier suggested by Vincent Vallières and Paul’s son Léo Piché.
The campfire
An evening with Paul Piché without a campfire is like raclette without cheese. That can’t be!
That’s why France Beaudoin brought her guest out of the studio, where around thirty guitarists were waiting for her. They performed “Happy of a Spring” under the direction of Stéphane Archambault. But as Archambault said, the bonfire didn’t happen out of respect for communities hit hard by wildfires this summer.
“Warmth comes from the heart, from within, not from the flame of a campfire,” he explained.
After a very strong first episode with Kim Richardson and the kidnapped Paul Piché, France Beaudoin and her team are preparing a special show next week with the actors of La Petite Vie, which returns to the screen on October 3rd.