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Pierre Garand alias Garou was born on June 26, 1972 in Sherbrooke, Canada. He began his career as an artist singing blues and then jazz in the bar “Le Liquor Store” in Magog, Quebec. He founded a music group called The Intouchables and during one of his performances in 1997, he was noticed by producer Luc Plamondon. After having been auditioned by the latter and in front of the Italian composer Richard Cocciante, he was hired to play the role of Quasimodo in the musical Notre-Dame de Paris.
While Noa, an Israeli singer, was to play the role of Esmeralda alongside Garou, she withdraws at the last moment. It was more than a year after the show was set up that singer Hélène Ségara was chosen for the role and the two stars met for the first time. The musical is enjoying unprecedented popularity with French audiences. The song Belle, interpreted among others by Garou, offers him a prize at the World Music Awards as well as at the victories of music. On stage, the two singers form one of the most memorable and unique duos in the history of French musicals.
Even today, almost 20 years after their debut, the two stars have remained very close. Invited to Nikos Aliagas’ show 50 Min Inside in 2015, Hélène Ségara returned to the time when her son failed the auditions for The Voice and in particular the moment when Garou, a member of the jury at the time, called him to have explanations for his arrival. “Why didn’t you tell me?” asked Garou. “I said to him: ‘Listen, because I didn’t know and then even if I had known, I wouldn’t have told you. said, “she told the host. A painful moment for the singer who, however, did not prevent her from remaining very close to her lifelong friend.
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In the 2000s, Garou, who was then a superstar thanks to the musical Notre-Dame de Paris, fell under the spell of a Swedish model named Ulrika. “That day, I was visiting a castle in London with a friend. She asked me what my queen would look like. And it was precisely at this precise moment that Ulrika passed in front of me. I looked at my girlfriend and I said: it’s her. I did everything to talk to her, but she didn’t know who I was, so I worked harder,” he claimed.
From this affair was born their first child, a girl named Emelie on July 7, 2001.
The singer Garou is the father of an 18-year-old teenager, born of his affair with the Swedish model Ulrika in July 2001. In an interview with the magazine Nous deux in 2017, the singer returned to their common passion for music: “ Adolescence is very complicated. When she was young, I made her a playlist to introduce her to lots of different music. Since then, she has surprised me with her knowledge of very varied songs”, he explained before adding: “Even if she does not like everything, she is kind enough to tell me that she likes Garou, the singer !”.
Although very close, Garou spends a lot of time in France, far from his only daughter: “Unfortunately we are far away very often, but we talk about everything. We do not live in daily complicity, but rather in continual reunions. We find ourselves like friends who feel like they left each other the day before and who share everything they have experienced without each other. Our bond remains very strong,” he said.
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In 2007, Garou found love again in the arms of a certain successful singer named Lorie, ten years his junior. The two singers, who would have met behind the scenes of the show Les enfoirés, then form the couple of stars of the moment.
“My first three albums were a hit in Quebec, I often went there for promotion. Each time, I saw Pierre (alias Garou). He was the bachelor coveted by all the girls, the party animal. Me, I was a kid. When Les Enfoirés started, I was the youngest. (…) Everything opposed us. No one expected to see us together,” Lorie told Gala magazine.
Garou, meanwhile, did not hesitate to introduce his daughter to his new companion: “I was very scared when Lorie met Emelie. I knew very well that she would not replace her mother. But everything went wonderfully and they became two great friends”, he confided to the Parisian.
Finally, the couple separates definitively after three years of relationship because of their respective careers.
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After his highly publicized breakup with singer Lorie, Garou began a romantic relationship with Canadian supermodel Stéphanie Fournier. Since 2013, the couple seems to be spinning the perfect love: “I found my other half. I’m in love. I would like to have another child, but I won’t say more about my partner. I don’t want to see my story publicized like the previous one. Anyway, I’m calmer. I don’t go out anymore. I smoke, I drink, but I take fewer drinks. Wisdom is to hold the reins of your excesses”, he confided to Paris Match.
The star, who seems to have regained “wisdom”, also eased off on her singing career: “I am doing musical research at the moment. Otherwise I’m in the “useful”, barn recoveries, my restaurants, my production projects. I’m in a lot of stuff, but the career, I really eased off, it does me good to diversify, to do something else. Many criticize me for not making another album. Not now. When I feel the impulse”, he confided to Figaro in 2017.
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Invited by Thomas Sotto on the show 8 p.m. on Sunday in June 2017, Garou returned to his meeting with Quebec superstar Celine Dion. He met her during a performance of the musical Notre-Dame de Paris: “The first meeting with Céline was backstage at Notre-Dame de Paris. In the wings. She did not know me and it is true that when there was the break, everyone was panicked because there was Celine Dion”, he said.
While everyone wants to approach the singer, Garou prefers to stay away from the general crowd: “Everyone wanted a piece of her, to meet her. Me, on the contrary, I said to myself ‘Poor thing, it must not be funny to be known like that’. I found it almost deplorable”, he said before adding: “And, when she came to meet us backstage, I was very quiet. I went to a corner and it was she who came to see me. And finally we chatted and we really laughed together. So it was a great first meeting”.
After this first meeting, the two stars will perform the mythical title Sous le vent as a duo in 2000. The song even won the Victory for Original Song a year later.
