Biography:

Since Garou’s debut on the music scene over 10 years ago, he has been a tour de force commanding sold out audiences, selling millions of albums worldwide and dazzling the theatre and music industries with his powerful vocals and superior showmanship. After releasing three award-winning Francophone albums, Garou prepares to launch his first English language album, Piece of My Soul, this Spring.

Garou has been making music from a very young age, but got his big break in 1997 when, while touring with his band The Untouchables, he was discovered by Luc Plamondon (renowned songwriter/composer), and tapped to play the starring role of Quasimodo in his rock opera Notre-Dame de Paris. Garou went on to play the Hunchback of Notre-Dame in Paris, Montreal, Lyons, Brussels, Geneva and London (in the English version of the work).

Garou received accolades around the world for his commanding stage presence and transcending vocals and
in 1999, was honoured at Quebec’s ADISQ Gala and presented with the Félix de la Révélation (Revelations of the
Year Award) before he had even recorded a solo album. “Belle”, Notre Dame de Paris’ signature song, performed by powerhouse trio Garou, Daniel Lavoie and Patrick Fiori, went on to win a World Music Award, as well as a Victoire Award. “Belle” was also voted best song of the past 50 years by the French public.

In 1999, the singer met René Angélil, who guided him in his recording career and became his manager. That same year Céline Dion invited Garou on stage to sing with her at Montreal’s New Year’s Eve celebration, wowing
audiences. In 2000 his debut album, Seul, was released on Sony Music, featuring some stunning musical collaborations with: Luc Plamondon, Richard Cocciante, Bryan Adams, Didier Barbelivien and Céline Dion for the duet “Sous le Vent”. Seul went on to sell 2.5 million copies, with almost 2 million sold in France alone, and the chart topping title track sold 1.5 million copies.

Five tours across France, Canada, Switzerland, Belgium and Poland marked Garou’s journey to perform the songs
from his album live and brought him to the forefront on the musical landscape. Garou was again honoured
at that year’s ADISQ Gala where he was awarded: Best Male Singer of the Year, Best Quebec Artist Outside Quebec, Best Selling Album, and Best Pop-Rock Album.

The follow-up Reviens, Garou’s second opus, was a huge hit, selling over a million copies, and the single
“La Rivière de Notre Enfance,” a historic duet with french singing legend Michel Sardou, spent almost two
months at #1 on the French Singles Chart. The 2004 tour was also a big critical and popular success, lasting
over ten months in France and Quebec as well as Lebanon, Tunisia, Poland, the Czech Republic and Russia. The DVD Routes, a souvenir from that international tour that included a full extra disc of bonus features, was released in 2005 and was certified Platinum the day it was released and sold nearly 250,000 copies worldwide.

In the fall of 2005, Garou began the process of working on another album. The artist decided to take things slowly this time around. Without being a concept album, this new self-titled album took shape with reflection on time as its basic theme. On Garou, longtime collaborators Jacques Veneruso, Jean-Jacques Goldman and Luc Plamondon were joined by French superstar Pascal Obispo, top songwriter David Gategno and Quebec mainstay Tino Izzo. Together they created an album with rich compositions and strong songwriting, that rocketed straight to the #1 spot on the French Album Chart. The tour for Garou got under way in Quebec in July 2006 with performances at the many outdoor festivals in Quebec, crossed the Atlantic in November of that year to crisscross Europe until March 2007.

Garou’s first English album Piece Of My Soul, incorporates the many sides of his musical personality and is somewhat an account of a day in his life: from the eye opening , energetic “Stand Up” to the late night, chilled out “Coming Home.” He found songs all over the world. From Sweden where most of the album was produced
by Peer Astrom (Céline Dion, Madonna, Jennifer Lopez), he got “Burning”, a hypnotic ballad penned by Anders Melander, that first appeared some fifteen years ago as a local hit. “Coming Home” was written by Astrom and Canadian Aldo Nova (Céline Dion) after they saw Garou in concert at the Olympia in Paris. Kristian Lundin (Backstreet Boys, *NSYNC, Britney Spears) and her team were responsible for the powerful “Back For More.”

Aldo Nova who has often collaborated on Garou’s previous French albums, also co-wrote the track that gives the album its title “Take A Piece Of My Soul.”

From the UK , Don Mescall (Ronan Keating, Richie Havens, LeAnn Rimes) participated in the writing of three songs on the album: “Beautiful Regret”; “Heaven’s Table” (that Garou has been performing live in the last five years was the ver y first song he submitted to the project) and “What’s The Time in NYC”, which was co-written
by Ronan Hardiman (Russell Watson, Ronan Keating , Michael Flatley.)

“Nothing Else Matters” was written by Dimitri Ehrlich and Andy Marvel, and is a based on a real-life experience that happened to supermodel and Sports Illustrated Swimsuit covergirl Petra Nemcova and her boyfriend during the infamous tsunami disaster in Thailand a few years back.

The song “The First Day Of My life” was co-written by Enrique Iglesias and Guy Chambers (Robbie Williams). From Holland, the song “Accidental” emerged as well as “You And I”, which was co-written by UK pop songstress Judie Tzuke. Matchbox twenty leader Rob Thomas provided the rock tinged song “Stand Up” that opens the album. It was the very last song recorded for the album and is the first single.

“All the Way” features lyrics by Garou himself. Based on his two passions: women and poker, the song is a clever essay in double-entendre. Piece of My Soul also features other Internationally renowned writers and producers including: Anders Barrén, Paul Blenn, Andreas Carlsson, Carl Falk, Wayne Hector, Kevin Hughes,
Graham Kearns, Mattias Lindblom, Charlie Russel, Lucie Silvas, Martin Sutton, Alex Vargas, Anders Wolbeck.

Garou’s very first album in English exemplifies his unique voice, his undeniable charisma and is wonderful musical journey. Enjoy.