There were several hundred admirers, gathered Thursday at Jeanne-Mance Park, in Montreal, to mourn and celebrate Karl Tremblay, whose death had been announced the day before.
“It might sound like a big thing to say, but I wouldn’t be the person I am without the Cowboys, without him. He gave a voice to an entire generation. »
For Nancy, many stages of life are associated with the music of Karl Tremblay and the Cowboys Fringants. Her “Quebecois singing” carried her through her realizations in adolescence, in her reflections in adulthood, in her moments of joy and her moments of sorrow. Today, like so many others, she is “in deep mourning”.
We already knew during his lifetime how much Quebec loved him. Since his departure on Wednesday, the extent of this affection for Karl Tremblay has been felt. It’s infinitely sad, but it’s also sublime. To the sound of the music of the group they love, which they all sing in chorus, Montrealers cry and hug each other. By singing The Shooting Stars, Hector’s Shack or America is Crying, they console themselves for a pain that is difficult to describe. That of the loss of an artist whom they did not really know, not personally, but who left an indelible mark in their lives.
“We often have the impression that artists are far from us, but he, in his own way, was close to us. We don’t know him personally, but he followed us all our lives, he wrote the soundtrack of our lives,” says Nancy.
“We wanted to be able to share this pain,” adds Émilie, his lifelong friend, at his side. It’s such a shock for us, such a big loss… It’s a way to start getting through it. We needed it. »
At the center of the large gathering of admirers, the first name Karl was formed with lanterns. Almost everywhere around the monument to Sir George-Étienne Cartier, we come across families, people of all generations. Some sing all the songs by heart, others use the lyrics on their cell phones. We drink beers, we brandish Quebec flags, we make this moment a comforting communion: even in mourning, the lovers of the Cowboys Fringants pay tribute to their singer in an atmosphere reminiscent of the one that he and his band wanted to create with their audience.
Several people we approach tell us, their eyes clouded with tears, that they are too moved to speak. Marion Archambault and Bérangère Thomas agree to tell us what their favorite group did for them. “It feels good to talk about him,” says Marion, who arrived from France 17 years ago, for whom the music of Cowboys Fringants was an encounter with her new Quebec identity.
“To tell myself that we won’t hear this voice anymore after the last album, it gives me the feeling that it’s a part of my identity that has disappeared. »
The event in Montreal was planned shortly after the announcement of Karl Tremblay’s death. In less than 24 hours, nearly 2,000 people expressed interest on Facebook or indicated they would be attending the vigil. There were several hundred of them, at least 500, gathered around a few musicians who improvised as accompanists to the choir of admirers, for a few hours. The time to “experience this mourning together”, as Nancy puts it.
“The event took on an incredible and unexpected scale, which should not have taken me by surprise, because is it so surprising that so many people wanted to pay tribute to him? », Wrote the organizer of the gathering on Thursday, who also explained that he did it on a whim and had not planned any real organization.
The thing happened naturally. We took out the instruments, the lanterns and the lights of the telephones, as “shooting stars”.
“All these spontaneous gatherings in several cities at the same time show that there are a lot of people who had the same need to get together,” says Émilie.
Abigaelle and Maya are both 16 years old. The two cousins came from the South Shore with their family to say goodbye to Karl Tremblay, who had been part of their lives “forever”.
“It’s a family thing for us,” Abigaelle says. With the death of the singer whose voice accompanied her from childhood to adolescence, Maya feels “that it’s a stage in [her] life that’s ending.” Something in her goes away with Karl Tremblay.
“But being together here shows that Quebec stands together and supports each other. I find this beautiful. We see that there were many, many people who loved him. »
Several gatherings of this type have been organized in Quebec. “It’s very rare to see this kind of thing when an artist dies, we don’t usually mourn them like this,” observes Nancy. “But if there hadn’t been this event in Montreal, we would have gone to L’Assomption. We had to go somewhere. »
It’s rare, moments like these, and yet, it seems completely logical, inevitable. When an artist brings people together as Karl Tremblay did throughout his career, there seems to be no better way to celebrate his life than to “be together.”