Yves Duteil decorated with the National Order of Quebec

< /p> UPDATE DAY

The author, composer and performer Yves Duteil was named, yesterday, by Prime Minister François Legault, Knight of the National Order of Quebec. 

The author of Take a child and The language of our home was decorated yesterday during a ceremony at the Circle of the garrison. Yves Duteil joins Félix Leclerc, Gilles Vigneault, Michel Rivard who marked the cultural landscape of Quebec and others who received this honor, awarded by the Quebec State, for their exceptional contribution.

“We honor a exceptional author, composer and performer. A great friend of Quebec. Quebecers have adopted you from the start and they fell in love with you. Your songs are now part of our popular culture,” said Premier Legault.

The Prime Minister added that To Take a Child had become the song most used in baptism ceremonies in Quebec and that it was imposed even before France.

“Proof that Quebecers are really visionary,” he laughed.

François Legault also hailed Yves Duteil for his success La langue de chez nous. 

“This song has a very strong meaning for us Quebecers. We see it as a declaration of love for the French language. You have made us proud of our language. You are more than a friend. You are an ally of the Quebec nation,” he said, adding that the French language will always be vulnerable in the heart of an English-speaking ocean.

A turning point< /p>

Yves Duteil, who has a 50-year career, is honored to receive the National Order of Quebec, the highest distinction awarded by the Quebec state.

“It is a huge honor and recognition of those who have inspired me. It is a more than precious gift and I savor it as a privilege. Quebec is like a second home to me. I have found here a land of fraternity and a family of hearts. La langue de chez nous, which I wrote after meeting Félix Leclerc, was a turning point in my life,” he said before taking out his guitar and playing it.

The 73-year-old author, composer and performer indicated that this meeting with Félix had changed his way of writing. Félix had told him that a poet who does not bother is useless.

“He made me realize that we are not here just to write pretty words and beautiful songs, but that we could also bring people together. This was the great lesson of La langue de chez nous. It was the first song I wrote that was able to bring people together,” he said in an interview. 

On tour in Quebec, Yves Duteil, who said , with humor, having been challenged, on his arrival, by the “beautiful campaign of the Government of Quebec against the decline of French

“The French language is our concern to all. We have a treasure in our hands. What will ultimately win is not French, or Italian or Spanish, but diversity,” he pointed out.

Yves Duteil is always amazed by the reactions when he sings La langue de chez mous.

“There is a kind of emotion of extraordinary strength that emerges at the beginning and at the end of the song. I feel this emotion deep inside of me. It brings me to tears every time, ”he dropped.