Martine Saint-Clair

Saint-Clair, Martine

Martine Saint-Clair. Singer, lyricist, b Montreal 22 Jul 1964. She gave her first shows while in school, at 15, singing songs by Gino Vanelli and Jean-Pierre Ferland, her sister providing the piano accompaniment. She was noticed by Luc Plamondon who saw her perform excerpts from the rock opera Starmania at the 'Cégeps en spectacle' competition; he offered her the role of Crystal in the Quebec production that played at the Comédie nationale in Montreal in 1980 (recorded on Beaubec BB-106).

She won a Félix Award as discovery of the year in 1981. Her first album, Coeur-ordinateur (1982, Pro-Culture PPC-6023) contained songs by Plamondon. It was followed by Il y a de l'amour dans l'air (1984, ADM International ADM-4001) which won her the Félix for pop LP of the year in 1985. With her third LP, Ce soir l'amour est dans tes yeux (1986, ADM International ADM-4004), which sold over 100 000 copies, she won Félix awards for pop song, best-selling single, pop LP and as female performer of the year in 1986. Her fourth album, Martine Saint-Clair (MJM International MJM-200), was launched in 1988. She starred in the second Paris production of Starmania, once again in the part of Crystal which she sang for over a year (this production was recorded on 2-WEA 24-42131 and Apache CD-44213). The anthology Mes plus belles chansons was released on the Star label (STR-CD-51) in 1988. Denis Lavoie wrote in (Montreal) La Presse: 'Discovered with Starmania, she entered our lives (...) for good with her shrill voice, her love cries, and songs that shot tenor times to the top of hit parades'.