Isabelle Boulay

Born on July 6, 1972 in Sainte-Félicité, Quebec, Canada, French Canadian chanteuse Isabelle Boulay began building her profile at various singing contests in her native Quebec during the late '80s, representing Radio Canada in 1993 at the Truffe de Périgueux festival in Périgord, France, where she won the Best Singer award in the Chanson Francophone category. She flew onto the radar of Céline Dion lyricist Luc Plamondon, who offered her the role of Marie-Jeanne in his rock opera Starmania in 1995. Providing the singing voice for Quebec singer Alys Robi in the TV miniseries of the same name also helped to cement her rise to fame, and she stepped out in 1996 with her debut album, Fallait Pas, which was written and produced by Daniel DeShaime. Isabelle Boulay released her follow-up album États D'Amour in 1997, which paved the way for four Félix Award nominations in 1998. She went on to amass another nine studio albums, including 2019's En Attendant Noël, which went to Number 5 in Canada and has also released two compilations: 2002's Ses Plus Belles Histoires, which she took to Number 10, and 2012's Master Série. That same year, Isabelle Boulay was made a knight of the Order of La Pléiade. She has been a coach on Francophone Canadian reality talent La Voix for its second, third, and fifth editions.