Crying, laughing and singing along with Marie-Annique Lepin, Jean-Francois Basset and Jerome Dubras, more than a hundred thousand fans of the Cowboys Frings, gathered at the Bell Center in Montreal or on the Quebecers’ favorite team’s Facebook page, congratulated him. Carl Tremblay last Tuesday evening.
The culmination of two weeks of collective mourning for an artist rarely seen in Quebec’s history brought us a moving national tribute to the singer, who died at age 47 of a cursed cancer. Full range of emotions.
It will be the most beautiful farewell we can hope for, to the one who so often shook Quebecers on stage, and who gave us the greatest lesson of courage last summer, when he sang for two hours on the Plains of Abraham, despite the grotesqueness of the disease. for.
“I love you Carl Tremblay. We love you our big, our giant tree and you will be in our memories for a long time. The first thing we fear to forget about someone who leaves is their voice. I think we are going to hear it for a long time,” said his lover Marie-Annique. Lepin is strong, dignified and touching.
Ann Maurice Richard
After the performance, he came on stage to a standing ovation Pub Royal Accompanied by the Montreal Symphony Orchestra and singer Alexia Kurt, members of the Cowboys Fringebands expressed their deep love for Carl through memories and anecdotes for about thirty minutes.
Karl is a happy and modest man, and “if you look at what’s been going on for two weeks, in his best wisdom he’s sure to say: “Okay, let’s see the gang, keep quiet, shut up”. »
“It happened too soon, Carl,” Jerome Dubras told him. You were so young, so beautiful, so tall. As big as this summer when I left JF program On the Plains: “Male, I think I played with Maurice Richard this evening”. »
“I will endure…”
Marie-Annique Lepin, who had been in love with her elder for more than 20 years, called themselves Carlmarie because they were inseparable.
He also said that until the end, Karl would have fought the most excruciating suffering to last as long as possible with his close guard.
“His last clear words from Tuesday to Wednesday night, November 15: “I will endure all this to the end, Mary, for my two daughters.” »
Upon hearing these words, our collective hearts once again broke into a thousand pieces.
on my shoulder
As he did in concerts, Jerome Dubras liked to introduce his dead friend, “Ladies and gentlemen, shout for the one last, unique, eternal, Carl Tremblay!” »
Then, before leaving the stage, the Cowboys Frontends wanted to sing one last song. Lucky lady on my shoulderIt resonated in a glowing bell center as the ultimate expression of collective love.
In addition to the group’s 14,000 insatiable devotees at the Bell Center, more than 122,000 followed the ceremony online during that time.
At a time when Quebecers had never been so divided, Carl Tremblay would have achieved the feat of uniting an entire people.
We will miss him terribly.
– With Rafael Gendron-Martin
Here is a summary of the emotional evening:
21h17 | Dozens of fans take turns performing a portion of the Cowboys Fringe’s song “Lessstars Philandus.”
20h30 | Montreal’s Champlain Bridge lights up in honor of Cowboys Fringeants singer
20h52 | Dr. Caden Barrett explains how prostate cancer can be diagnosed and what medical advances have been made in this disease.
20H28 | Les Cowboys Fringants, along with the crowd, perform “Sir Mon Ebale” from the album “Les Antipodes” released on October 4, 2019.
20H20 | Jerome Dubras gives a touching testimony to the audience at the Bell Center
20H10 | Marie-Annique Lepine, Carl Tremblay’s partner, gave a touching testimony to the audience at the Bell Center.
20H05 | Jean-François Pauzé gave a moving testimony to the audience at the Bell Center
20H00 | Members of the Cowboys Fringants, Jérôme Dupras, Jean-François Pauzé and Marie-Annick Lépine were welcomed on stage to thunderous applause.
19H53 | Alexia Court sings Pub Royal with the OSM String Quintet, one of Carl Tremblay’s compositions.
• Read more: Pub Royale’s Media Premiere: Cowboys Fringants attend and shower with love
19H50 | A moment of silence
More than 15,000 spectators observe a moment of silence in memory of Carl Tremblay.
19H44 | “Stay in, it’ll keep you warm and you’ll have a good time”
Master of Ceremonies Emile Proulx-Cloutier addresses the audience at the Bell Center for a tribute to Carl Tremblay. “If we could have found an amphitheater 10 times, 100 times bigger, we would have done that, but it wouldn’t be big enough to contain the love and pain that was felt.”
19H40 | The Montreal Symphony Orchestra (OSM) opens its program with a tribute to Carl Tremblay.
7:30 pm | National Tribute to Carl Tremblay Begins at Bell Center; Follow the event live
19H15 | “Quebec has been in mourning since Carl’s death,” says Émile Lesard-Therrien, Quebec Solider’s new co-spokesperson. “There are few groups that succeed in bringing us together for anything and everything.” “It’s rare to see artists who make us party enough to change the world,” says Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois, co-spokesperson for Quebec Solidaire.
19H10 | “They talk about everyday life, joys, sorrows, and turn them into poetry,” says the interim leader of Quebec’s Liberal Party.
19H05 | “I feel privileged to be here and to be able to send love to his wife and family along with over 15,000 people,” says Valerie Plante.
19H04 | Pauline Marois, former Premier of Quebec, says, “I’m an absolute fan of the Cowboys Fringeants, I listen to them over and over again in my car. “Cowboys sing about the everyday life of Quebecers and the simple lives of ordinary citizens, but do it very poetically.”
19H00 | “As long as we have love. It is a song that reflects the simplicity of the people of Quebec, in general a people should take care of others and not take themselves for others (…) as if the cowboys had this ability to talk about who the people of Quebec are. And how we are very different from the rest of North America and the rest of the world, in some respects, but we have to do it softly, confidently… very brightly,” said Paul St., president of the Parti Québécois. -Pierre Plamonton.
18H55 | French Language Minister Jean-François Roberge, who is at the Bell Center for the ceremony, recounts a touching story he experienced with his father; Watch his intervention below
18H50 | “What we appreciate about Carl is his ability to speak to us so eloquently about our community,” says Canadian Heritage Minister Pascale St-Ongs.
18H45 | “Carl Tremblay embodies what we are in Quebec,” says Sonia Bélanger, minister responsible for seniors. “All Quebecers identified themselves in his songs and in his interpretation of them.”
18H39 | “It’s remarkable how he passed down the generations, and I’m happy to be able to pay tribute to him,” says Pascale Déry, MP-elect for the Repenigny constituency.
18H32 | “It’s as if Quebecers have lost one of their closest family members,” said Francois Legault, who has just arrived at the Bell Centre. Remember, Quebec’s premier proposed a national funeral for the Cowboys Fringeants singer’s family, opting instead for a memorial service.
18H23 | “Regardless of our political color, Fringe’s cowboys want to change things around us,” Matthew Lacombe said when he arrived at the Bell Center.
The ceremony will be presented at 7:30pm in front of the 14,000 people who managed to get tickets for the event, as well as live on the group’s Facebook page.
• Read more: Cowboys Fringe fans bid farewell to Carl Tremblay
• Read more: Artists, political figures and celebrities pay tribute to Cowboys frontman Carl Tremblay
The tribute will begin with a performance by the Montreal Symphony Orchestra. Then, a member of the committee will be called to testify. All ends with a screening of America Weeps – The Movie.
A meeting is even planned in L’Assomption, the town where Carl Tremblay and his family lived.
