Press relation Francine Chaloult, who has long represented many artists including Celine Dion, died at the age of 82, unveiled Liberal MP Pierre Arcand on Tuesday evening.
“It is with sadness that I wish to inform you of the death of the mother of my wife Dominique. Mrs. Francine Chaloult would have been 83 years old on June 5th. During her career, she was the most extraordinary press attaché representing all the great artists of Quebec. She did her job with passion,” shared Mr. Arcand on his Facebook page.
Omnipresent in the world of Quebec music, Francine Chaloult had founded her Bureau in 1974, thus taking many personalities under her wing over the years, including Gilles Vigneault, Jean-Pierre Ferland and Céline Dion, whom she had represented since the diva is 14 years old.
According to impresario Josélito Michaud, who paid her a vibrant tribute on Facebook, Francine Chaloult had suffered from Alzheimer’s for a few years.
“She was above all my friend, a real mother. We laughed together. We also cried when Georges Hébert Germain, the love of his life, learned about his cancer. We were turned upside down when we learned that it was over for René Angélil, just a few months after the death of his man. Two departures which came to create chaos in his life”, related the one who judges that all of Quebec should know this “pioneer” who “literally invented the profession” of press relations.
The career and influence of Francine Chaloult had been recognized during a tribute paid by ADISQ in 2019, recalled Josélito Michaud.
Francine Chaloult’s artistic streak has also passed on to her family, who is survived by her sister, host Suzanne Lévesque, and her daughter Dominique Chaloult. The latter, among other things, became known as general manager at Télé-Québec, then on Radio-Canada television, a position she left in 2019.
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