Robert Charlebois,
OC,
OQ (born June 25, 1944) is a
Québecois author, composer, musician, performer and actor.
Charlebois was born in
Montreal,
Quebec. Among his best known songs are Lindberg (the duo with
Louise Forestier in particular), Ordinaire, Les Ailes d'un Ange and Je reviendrai à Montréal. His lyrics, often written in
joual, are funny, relying upon plays on words. He won the
Sopot International Song Festival in 1970.
In 1970 he sang with Italian singer
Patty Pravo the Italian song La solitudine. In the same year, he performed at the
Festival Express train tour in Canada, but did not appear on the documentary film.
The Quebec-based
microbreweryUnibroue was owned, in part, by Charlebois until it was purchased by
Sleeman Breweries in 2004 which in turn was bought by Japanese beer brewing giant Sapporo in 2006.
Charlebois was one of the four musicians who were pictured on the second series of the Canadian Recording Artist Series issued by
Canada Post stamps on July 2, 2009.[3]
On June 21, 2010, Charlebois received an
honorary doctorate[4] from
Concordia University in Montreal. In his acceptance speech he made the remark that this was the first post-secondary diploma he had received in his life.