Normand Brathwaite has been a rock of cultural stability since the early 1980’s in an ever-evolving pop-culture industry in Québec.   Although it was his desire to become a mainstream actor, he was suddenly thrust into stardom in La cage aux folles in the early 1980s, a very popular music comedy.   Brathwaite himself once said in an interview with Dice B that it unexpectedly propelled him to a high level of stardom in the early 1980s, and that level has never dropped.

Since then, in general terms, his career a taken a two-pronged journey; one as a television personality, one as a radio personality (although some of my earliest memories of Brathwaite were of regularly seeing him doing comedy on stage in front of full houses and making being a guest on all sorts of TV shows).  

His television career saw him host numerous programs, including the very popular Piment Fort on TVA for much of the 1990’s (a game show-styled program with celebrities as the participants), as well as other shows and televised comedy.   His show Le Match des Étoiles hit TV viewerships of over 1 million people, and he continues to host Belle et Bum on Télé-Québec, where he’s been the host for over 10 years.

His TV career also saw him take an active role as an awards presenter on numerous cultural Prix and Gala broadcasts (hey, you don’t get to repeatedly host the biggest awards nights in the industry by being just anybody!). 

For 20 years, he was one of the first voices people heard on morning radio when they tuned into CKOI-FM (Montréal) – one of the more popular hit-music radio stations in Montréal.  After leaving CKOI, he was on Rouge-FM for a couple of years.

He has repeatedly hosted the annual St-Jean-Baptiste evening concerts, which along with the parade, is one of the most televised events of the occasion.

Normand Bratwaite, you could say, is pop-culture in Québec.  If you were to ask Québecers to name three of four stars, he would likely be one.

When conducting your internet searches for material (videos, images, etc), please stick to officially approved sites, footage and public commons images.   He’ll be guaranteed to make you smile, just as he has been making Québec smile for the last couple generations.  Please do not pirate (our artists are part of our cultural fabric).