The last few posts touched upon some serious subjects, as well as and election topics.  Let’s take a break and lighten things up a little.

Jean Leloup is one of the singers I grew up listening to.  His real name is Jean Leclerc, but everyone knows him as Jean Leloup (Jean “the wolf”)

Although their music styles are different, Jean Leloup’s career in Québec could be considered to have many parallels with Jon Bon Jovi’s career in the USA.

• Both are equally well known on their respective side of the border (Jean Leloup in Québec, and Bon Jovi in the USA)
• Jean Leloup was born in 1961, Jon Bon Jovi was born in 1962.
• Both of their music careers essentially started in 1983.
• They both came out with albums in 1980s, although Jean Leloup’s career really started to take off a few years’ later than Bon Jovi’s
• Both of their better-known albums did not come out until the mid-1990’s — both of which are still regularly heard today on the radio and in cultural contexts.
• Both went out and came back into the public spotlight at various times in the 1990s, 2000s, right up to the present.
• Concerts helped to keep their careers front-and-centre in people’s minds through this entire period,
• Both have become music icons within their respective society’s music culture.
• By the start of the 1990s, both were becoming known names in various countries (Bon Jovi in various English-speaking countries, and Jean Leloup in France, Belgium, and even the Netherlands.  I also read Jean Leloup found certain success in Japan).

So who is Jean Leclerc Leloup?

He is an alternative rock signer with a very unique style, which in itself seems to meld various styles.

His style is not “rock” in the traditional sense (which is why I said his style is very different from Bon Jovi’s).

When he sings, he often half-talks, half-sings.  Yet when put to music, the measured alternative rock elements tend to comes out.  In this sense, his genre is almost story-telling rhythmed alternative rock.   Confused yet?  That’s fine… the rest of us are as well.   But we like it!

When I look back to my teen years in the 1990s, I think back to a few of his better-known songs from that period which I grew up listening to (which remain among his most iconic songs, and which you will still hear on the radio):

• Le Dôme
• I lost my baby
• Le monde est à pleurer

His latest album came out in 2015, À Paradis City.  Jean Leloup supposedly spent 10 years making it.

Here is the fun part… 

A few days ago, Jean Leloup posted a video online in which he showed off his choreographed moves for his latest album À Paradis City.  It made me instantly think of a younger Mick Jaggar.

The video went viral in this week in Québec (everybody is watching it).

Here is the context:  Imagine if Bon Jovi stood in the doorway of his kitchen – much smaller than anyone would have expected, in a much humbler home than anyone would have expected – with his dirty dishes scattered all around (complete with an coffee press and other furnishings from IKEA, and a piano keyboard in the kitchen… yes a piano keyboard in the kitchen), with a messy desk in the background, flipping around with his crazy new moves.

What would people’s reactions be if they saw Bon Jovi do that?

That’s precisely what happened with the video that Jean Leloup made.

I think everyone in the Franco-sphere just kind of stared at the video with their mouths dropped open – just like I did… half in disbelief, but nonetheless with a big smile (the video is a little shocking… I mean, we’re actually in his modest kitchen – and it’s not what anyone expected!).

That’s our Jean Leloup!!

If English Canadians were to take the time to explore his albums, I truly think they would greatly identify with his music, and would rapidly embrace him as one of their own..  So, let’s hope.  It is worth getting to know him better.

Here is the video.  The latter half lets you hear his immediately recognizable music style.    I like!  I hope you do to.