Iconic Québécois singer-songwriter Jacques Michel has passed away, on March 5, 2026, at the age of 84, after an incredible career that includes more than 200 songs, including the huge hits “Amène-toi chez nous” and “Un nouveau jour va se lever.” His music resonated across several generations in Québec, as more than 30 of his songs scaled the peak of the Francophone charts between 1960 and 2005. His most recent album Tenir, the 19th of his career, came out in 2019, a whopping 54 years after his first one, Jacques Michel… et ses chansons.
As a songwriter, Michel was strongly devoted to the sovereigntist movement in the Québec of the 1970s. In this pursuit, he performed in a series of shows, Poèmes et chants de la résistancerésistance [Poems and Songs of Resistance] in 1968, 1971, and 1973. His song “Un nouveau jour va se lever,” [“A new day will rise”] became an anthem for the cause, in the aftermath of the October FLQ Crisis.
Born in the village of Sainte-Agnès-de-Bellecombe in Abitibi-Témiscamingue in 1941, Michel was immersed in music from an early age. He wrote his first lyrics at eight years old for a show at his grade school. But he changed course at 15 to enlist in the army. His passion for music eventually took over, and he joined bands such as The Rock’n’roll Kids, then The Midnighters, in the Eastern Townships, where his family had moved.
He embarked on a solo career in 1963, after landing his first contract, and slowly began to carve out his place in the Québec music scene. He won the first award of his prolific career in 1965, Discovery of the Year at the Festival du disque. His career took off in the 1970s, a decade during which he released nine albums. His songs stayed on the charts until 1983, including “Chacun son refrain,” “Pas besoin de frapper pour entrer” “Allume mes lumières,” and “Amène-toi chez nous”—the last of which earned him the Grand Prix at the Spa Festival in Belgium. “Pas besoin” was inducted into the Canadian Songwriters Hall of Fame, and earned him several SOCAN Awards.
In 1984, Michel took a break from his musical career to switch to television. Together with his partner at the time Ève Déziel, he created the children’s TV shows Le village de Nathalie and Sur la rue Tabaga. These two hits ran for three and six years, respectively. Michel wrote several songs for the Nathalie show, including the opening theme, which resonated throughout the province and captivated a generation of children.
In another of his life’s twists and turns, at age 49, Michel left Québec to travel the world on his sailboat, in which he crossed the Atlantic in 2012.
But before then, at the turn of the millennium, his greatest hits returned to the top of the charts, thanks to artists like Julie Arel and Sylvain Cossette, who performed them. In 2004, the TV singing competition show Star Académie used “Un nouveau jour va se lever” as its theme song. The previous year, an academy member, Wilfred LeBouthillier, revived “Amène-toi chez nous.” Also in 2004, Michel returned to the stage, making a triumphant comeback at Place des Arts in Montréal, with his show Jacques Michel en rappel at the FrancoFolies de Montréal. Over the years, other artists also recorded his songs, including Ginette Reno and Fred Pellerin. More recently, his song “Viens, un nouveau jour va se lever” was performed by Philippe Brault and Lou-Adriane Cassidy for the feature film Deux femmes en or.
Michel once again reconnected with his love of music in 2015, embarking on a 40-show tour, after the release of his album Un nouveau jour, a compilation of re-recorded hits. He picked up his pen again in 2019, with the release of Tenir, his first album of original songs since 1982. His last concert tour, Seul à Seuls, began in 2024, when he was 83 years old. It ended after his last performance in July 2025, due to his illness.
His career was recognized by the Government of Quebec, which awarded him the title of Chevalier de l’Ordre national du Québec in 2007. Then in 2020, the Société professionnelle des auteurs et des compositeurs du Québec (SPACQ) honoured him for his career with the Sylvain-Lelièvre Award.