Marie Carmen

Early Life

Born Marie-Carmen Aubut in the Quebec City suburb of Sainte-Foy, Marie Carmen has a twin sister named Hélène. Carmen’s love of performance began in childhood. She credits the song “Aigle noir” by French pop singer Barbara as an early inspiration. However, Carmen’s early interest in performance led her first to the theatre. She began acting in 1976.

Early Career

Before launching her solo career in the late 1980s, Marie Carmen was a member of several bands. They included Accident, Blood et Marie, Radio Rats, and Cinéma X. It was with Cinéma X that she recorded her first single, “Pauvre star,” which earned considerable radio airplay. In 1983, she was a backup singer on Claude Dubois’ album Implosif. It was thanks to this exposure that she then became a backing singer, alongside Sass Jordan, in the Quebec-based progressive pop rock band The Box.

Carmen’s star continued to rise through the mid-1980s, eventually catching the attention of producer and lyricist Luc Plamondon. Plamondon cast Carmen as Marie-Jeanne, the “robotic waitress” in his revival of the post-apocalyptic rock opera Starmania. Plamondon also recorded Carmen’s first solo single, “Piaf chanterait du rock,” which quickly became a major success.

In 1988, she appeared in Marc Drouin’s musical review Vis ta vinaigrette. It was there that she met François Jean, drummer for the band Les BB. The two went on to have a decade-long relationship.

Career Highlights

Marie Carmen’s debut album, Dans la peau, was released in 1989. The album was certified gold in Canada. Three singles reached the top 10 of music radio in Quebec: the title track, “Faut pas que j’panique,” and “T’oublier.”

Carmen’s second album, Miel et venin (1992), was the highest-selling French-language album in Quebec that year. It sold more than 240,000 copies and was certified double platinum in Canada. She won that year’s Félix Award for Female Artist of the Year. Miel et venin was on the Radio Activité chart for 76 weeks, 36 of which were at No. 1. However, according to the Montreal Gazette, Carmen would have easily won that year’s Juno Award for best-selling francophone album, but her record label didn’t nominate her for the Juno. At the time, her manager didn’t believe the award would mean anything in Quebec.

Carmen won three Félix Awards in 1993, notably beating Céline Dion for Female Artist of the Year. Carmen also won awards for performance of the year and album of the year. Her up-tempo cover of French singer Barbara’s “L’Aigle noir” was a major hit, reaching No. 1 on the charts and staying there for several weeks in 1993. The single sold 100,000 copies in France alone. In 1993, at the peak of her stardom, Marie Carmen sold out the Montreal Forum and also performed at the Canada Day concert on Parliament Hill in Ottawa. She also had a hit duet with English singer Murray Head called “Une femme, un homme.”

Carmen’s third album, L’Une (1995), was certified gold in Canada and spawned three No. 1 Quebec radio hits: “J’ai l’blues de vous,” “Je t’aime mal,” and “Je veux qu’tu m’aimes.” In 1996, Carmen once again performed in a production of Starmania, albeit in Paris and in a different role.

In 1998, Carmen released her fourth album, L’Autre, which included the hit song “J’veux d’la tendresse.” This album did not perform as well commercially as her other albums, though it was nonetheless well-received by critics and is considered by some to be her best work.

Philanthropy

In the year 2000, Marie Carmen decided to quit show business and dedicate her efforts to philanthropy. She had been dealing with fatigue brought on by constant media pressure, so she left Canada to volunteer for humanitarian work in Peru. She returned to the stage in Montreal in the fall of 2005 with several performances, which raised funds for her work in Peru. She made several trips to Peru in the early 2000s and worked with many impoverished people there. She also learned Spanish during these trips, which she emphatically specified was to work as a volunteer, not as a missionary.

Later Career

Marie Carmen did not fully retire from show business. She appeared on the popular Quebec TV show Star Académie, where she performed a medley of her songs. In 2008, she released the album Le Diamant, which included two singles that charted in Quebec. In 2018, her song “Entre l’ombre et la lumière” won the SOCAN Classic Song award. In 2022, she won yet another Félix Award for Performance of the Year, which she shared with Joe Bocan et Marie Denise Pelletier for the musical review Pour une histoire d’un soir. The show had been launched on 10 March 2020, just days before COVID-19 pandemic lockdown measures made touring impossible. Despite this initial setback, it was nonetheless a major success when it eventually opened.

In the fall of 2024, Carmen embarked on a year-long tour called “Perles cachées” (Hidden Pearls). She performed some of the lesser-known works from her repertoire. In the fall of 2025, she announced that she, Joe Bocan and Marie Denise Pelletier would tour their hit show Pour une histoire d’un soir again in 2026.

Awards

• Female Artist of the Year, Félix Awards (1992, 1993)
• Performance of the Year, Félix Awards (1993)
• Album of the Year (Miel et venin), Félix Awards (1993)
• Classic Song Award (“Entre l’ombre et la lumière”) SOCAN (2018)
• Performance of the Year (Pour une histoire d’un soir, shared with Joe Bocan, Marie Denise Pelletier), Félix Awards (2022)

Discography

• Dans la peau (1989)
• Miel et venin (1992)
• L’Une (1995)
• Déshabillez-moi (1996)
• Les grands succès (1997)
• L’Autre (1998)
• Le Diamant (2008)