Skip to main content
Go back

Raymond Lévesque

Black and white photo of Raymond Lévesque in a jacket and tie listening to the sound of a miniature guitar he is holding in his hands.

Archives of Gilles Mathieu

Raymond Lévesque was born in Montreal on October 7, 1928 and died in the same city on February 15, 2021.

For several years, Raymond Lévesque would settle down for the summer season at La Butte à Mathieu. Three different shows were developed. The first opened the season while the second was already in rehearsal, and the final show captured the effervescence of everything going on at La Butte that year, while peering into the ups and downs of the evolving political situation.

During the 1950s, Raymond Lévesque performed in the café-theatres of Saint-Germain-des-Près in Paris. It was his song Les trottoirs, recorded by Eddie Constantine, that made him famous in both France and Quebec.

In 1956, as part of the decolonization movement that set many countries ablaze, he composed Quand les hommes vivront d’amour, inspired by the Algerian war. Back in Quebec, he espoused the cause of Quebec independence, a colony like any other that must aspire to autonomy.