Par Mathilde Seifert
Published on 03/03/2024 at 6:28 p.m., Updated on 03/03/2024 at 11:15 p.m.
Isabelle Boulay in “A Sunday in the Country” Screenshot
The Quebec singer entered the enchanted parenthesis of Frédéric Lopez for a weekend. The opportunity for her to speak about her childhood.
“I always sang about fixing people. » From the first minutes of the program “A Sunday in the Country” broadcast on March 3, Isabelle Boulay announces the color. It is in the attic, a place conducive to childhood confessions, that the singer tells Frederic Lopez as well as the two other guests – who this week are the comedian and actor Jérémy Ferrari and the cellist Gautier Capucon – his debut behind a microphone.
The Quebecer sang from a very young age. At first in her parents’ restaurant, then after its sale, she performed in bars in the surrounding area. Only at the age of 8, an incident turned his life upside down. “On December 24, 1980, my father left. The phone rings and it’s as if the curtain has closed on life”explains the singer, explaining that her father was the victim of a road accident.
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“The light never came back”
“He stayed in intensive care for nine months and when he came back he was very weak. When you lose your light, it casts a shadow. The light never came back », deplores Isabelle Boulay. A few years later his parents separated and his father went to live in the forest, without electricity or running water. And if this event remains difficult, the singer speaks of a blessing in disguise. “His presence was heavy, he was depressed and a little angry about what had happened to him. »
To compensate for this absence, Isabelle Boulay continues to exercise her passion in restaurants and bars in the region. “Singing was an emergency exit”, she reveals. However, some clients of the establishments where she performs do not see it that way and inform the Youth Protection Department of the presence of a child. “At 11, my mother told me that I could no longer sing, so on weekends I could no longer escape. I told myself that I had to make this sacrifice so that I wouldn’t be taken away from my family and my little brothers and my mother would end up alone. »