Lisa LeBlanc
Shortly after winning top honours at the Festival international de la chanson de Granby, Lisa LeBlanc released her self-titled debut album in 2012, which received a phenomenal reception and was certified platinum in Canada. The Acadian's raw, stripped-down songs and her roots-rock-country blend were undeniable: she won the Révélation de l'année award at the ADISQ gala, the Révélation de l'année award at GAMIQ and was named Révélation musique by Radio-Canada. In 2014, she released the EP Highways, Heartaches and Time Well Wasted , followed two years later by the album Why You Wanna Leave, Runaway Queen? , which was short-listed for the Polaris Prize. Of these two offerings, she chose English, expanding her creative potential and opening herself up to new audiences. The three albums sold more than 140,000 copies.
Moving as easily from Dawson City to Caraquet as from Paris to Lafayette, Lisa and her musicians toured virtually non-stop over the next few years. She took a break in 2019 to let this whirlwind period settle, but still took the opportunity to travel, write and grow as a musician. She co-produced the first album of Nova Scotian Jacques Surette, then directed Édith Butler's 25th long-play, Le tour du Grand Bois , allowing her to explore other facets of musical creation, while putting her talents, ideas and passion at the service of others.
Halfway between humor and homage, the EP It's not a game it's a lifestyle , on which Lisa personifies Belinda, her bingo-kitsch alter ego, was released in June 2020. The musical project, which flirts with disco dance, in a way sets the table for what is to come. She returns in 2022 with Chiac Disco , a new album co-produced with her accomplice Benoît Morier. Set with musical glitter of all kinds, multi-colored phrases sung loud and clear in an assumed chiac, and breathtaking arrangements, the album is a salute to the memory of Lee Hazlewood, as well as to the chic disco years and funk. Featuring the unlikely encounter between glamour and rurality, Chiac Disco racked up nominations from (ADISQ to Junos), earned a spot on the Polaris short list, and won the Félix in the categories of Record Production of the Year (with her loyal collaborator Benoit Morier) and Pop Album of the Year. Since then, the musician's catalog has been streamed more than 33 million times on digital platforms.
After four tours in Europe (France, Belgium, Germany, Spain and the United Kingdom) and two notable appearances in the United States since the release of Chiac Disco , Lisa LeBlanc is back in the fall of 2024 with the album Live avec l'Orchestre symphonique de Québec . This large-scale artistic trip allows the Acadian multi-instrumentalist to satisfy her desire for grandiose arrangements by propelling her repertoire to another level. Accompanied by her band, the 63 musicians of the OSQ and conductor Jean-Michel Malouf, Lisa takes the opportunity to bring out the banjo and revisit her classics, proving in the process that this instrument, which is an integral part of her musical DNA, is not exclusively intended for traditional music. With this first live album, Lisa has fun highlighting the contrast between the simplicity of everyday life that characterizes her lyrics and her taste for extravagance, for a result that is as delightful as it is surprising.
WEBSITE: lisaleblanc.ca