Born on January 20, 1948 in Sainte-Françoise (Canada), and died on February 26, 2014 in Drummondville (Canada), Georges Hamel, nicknamed the gentleman of country, was a Canadian country singer. He completed his primary and secondary education in his hometown, and went on to study hotel management. He gave his first show in 1974, at his brother André's wedding. In 1976, he gave up his hotel job to concentrate on music. He released his first album, Guitare, Chante Avec Moi , in 1977. His first hits in the late 1970s and early 1980s were " La Valse des amoureux ", " Mon Petit frère ", " Petite Maryse " and " Portez-lui ces roses ". He went on to perform across Canada throughout the 1980s and 1990s. Georges Hamel devoted two albums in the 1990s and 2000s to his childhood idol, Marcel Martel. He has won the Félix for Country Album of the Year on five occasions, with his albums Les Cowboys des Temps Modernes in 1991, Il Seouvient du Temps in 1997, Chansons du Patrimoine Vol.1 in 2002, Merci Pour Votre Amitié in 2006 and Une Fleur Pour Vous in 2014. In 2009, he was diagnosed with bone marrow cancer. He overcame the disease in part and released the autobiographical opus Je Reviens de Très Loin in 2013. Shortly after the release of his latest album on February 11, 2014, which he sings in the company of other Quebec country artists, cancer takes its toll on him at the end of the month.
