Born Alphonse Joseph Jean Pierre Lalonde on January 20, 1941, in Montreal, Pierre Lalonde is a Canadian pop singer, television personality, and one of Quebec's most beloved pop culture icons. The son of singer Jean Lalonde, he made his first radio appearance at the age of 4 and later relocated to the United States after his mother remarried. Upon his return to Quebec in 1960, Pierre Lalonde made his official music debut in 1962 with the singles "Chip Chip" and "Mam'zelle Marie-Anne," both of which became extremely popular in French-speaking Canada, selling over 50,000 copies. During this time, he joined Joël Denis to host the variety show Jeunesse d'aujourd'hui, which aired between 1962 and 1971. En d'autres mots..., his studio debut, was released in 1963 and was followed by several singles that cemented Pierre Lalonde's status as a relevant figure in the Quebecois pop music scene, including "C'est le Temps des vacances" (1963), "Nous, on est dans le vent" (1963), "Donne-moi ta bouche" (1967), and "Caroline" (1969). Throughout the 1970s, he would reach a new level of artistic maturity through his association with composer and arranger Stéphane Venne, who played a major role on his critically acclaimed 1971 album, Inouik. Over the following decade, Pierre Lalonde performed with Donald Lautrec and Michel Louvain on the live show Les 3 L and continued to reach millions of homes in Canada as the host of the TV show Star d'un soir. Even though his output waned in the 1990s and 2000s, he surprised his fans every now and then with releases such as the compilation La voix d'une génération : 21 succès souvenir (1994), Aujourd'hui (1997), La belle vie (2000), and Noël avec Pierre Lalonde (2002). The legendary French-Canadian singer passed away on June 21, 2016, after a long battle with Parkinson's disease.
