Here’s what happened to the seven Star Academie winners

20 years! It has been 20 years since Quebec learned about the first edition of Star Academie.

And it wasn’t over, it was just the beginning…

• Also read: 15 things that happened in Quebec 20 years ago, in 2003

• Also read: [PHOTOS, VIDÉOS] What happened to the 62 candidates on Star Academy

We have had the opportunity to see many singers from the county achieve success thanks to this singing competition that launched in 2003 on the TVA airwaves.

20 years later, more than a hundred singers have taken part in the adventure. Many of them are well known, sometimes more than the winners of their year…but the fact remains that only seven of them have had the opportunity to be crowned Grand Prize winner at Star Academie.

Here are, in order, the seven Star Academie Québec winners and what happened to them:

It should be noted that a few years ago Star Académie launched a reunion album bringing together a large part of the nominees and winners of the various first editions. You will find it here.

1. Season 1 2003 – Wilfrid Le Bouthillier

Originally from Tracadie-Sheila in New Brunswick, Wilfred LeBouthillier will be remembered as the first winner in Quebec’s Star Academie history.

The same year, his debut album won awards at the Independent Music Awards and Juno Awards for Best French-Language Album in Canada.

In 2011, LeBouthillier performed dozens of times at the Olympia in Paris as an opening act for Véronic Dicaire.

The year 2018 marked a new turning point for the man who has sold nearly 300,000 albums in his career, as he became the owner of his own label and production company called 2W Productions.

LeBouthillier married Jézabel Drolet in 2022 and partnered with his wife to open an aesthetic medicine clinic that was the target of a lawsuit in 2022.

2. Season Two 2004 – Stephanie Lapointe

The singer from Brossard has released two solo albums after winning Star Ac: Sur le fil in 2005, which earned her two nominations at the 28th ADISQ Gala, and They Give Me Something That Never Ends in 2009.

In addition to her singing career, Stefani has also developed as an actress.

She landed the role of Colette in the series Le Négociateur (2005-2007) and roles on the big screen with the films Aurore (2005), Fear of Water (2010) and Liverpool (2012), and also interpreted the role of Blanche in the musical Les Filles de Caleb (2011).

Stephanie became a spokesperson for the Au Sommet project for Care Canada and completed the ascent of Kilimanjaro for this NGO in 2005. She was named an ambassador for UNICEF Quebec in 2007.

Since then, the artist has worked on several novel writing projects including the Fanny Cloutier Youth Series, which was launched in 2018.

3. Season 3 2005 – Marc-Andre Fortin

Originally from Hébertville in Saguenay-Lac-Saint-Jean, Marc-André Fortin won the third edition of the Star Academie. He is remembered for sharing his grand prize ($50,000) with Audrey Gagnon.

His debut album was released in April 2007 and it was one of the best selling albums of the same year. Until the spring of 2008, he toured Quebec with his first tour.

In the summer of 2010, at the age of 20, the singer had to come to terms with the disease while battling tongue cancer. And he will make a grand return after five months on the stage of the Arts Square for performances of “December, Christmas in Quebec Essem”.

Between 2010 and 2019, Marc-André Fortin mainly performed on stage thanks to the various projects of Québec Issime, including Starmania and Cow-Boys.

4. Season 4 2009 – Maxime Landry

Declared a grand winner and crowd favorite at the age of 21, Maxime Landry’s career took off during his time on Star Ac.

A few months after his triumph, he fulfilled his greatest dreams by singing in particular in a duet with Claude Dubois, Isabelle Poulay and Celine Dion.

He recorded his first solo album, Vox Pop, which appeared on December 1, 2009. Just eight weeks after its release, it was certified double platinum.

At his first appearance at the ADISQ ceremony, in 2010, Maxime won four Félix Awards, including Album of the Year, Best Performance of 2010 and Popular Song of the Year for “Cache”.

The singer has since released 4 more albums and returned to his first love for his fourth work by returning to country. He also won his fifth Félix Award, this time for Album of the Year – Country, at the ADISQ Gala in 2015.

In June 2019, Maxime Landry is moving as he makes his “surprise” on TV.

On November 22, 2019, he released his latest album, Already 10 Years Old, to celebrate his ten-year career and sold over 350,000 copies in his career.

Since then, Maxime Landry hosts his own radio show on Rouge FM every weekday and He also wrote 4 books.

5. Season 5 2012 – Jean-Marc Couture

After receiving top honors at the Star Académie, Jean-Marc Couture continued producing music, as well as working for Câble & Son.

On the musical front, he became a new member of La Chicane in 2022, after Danny Pedder announced his departure from the band.

After splitting from host Marie-Christine Lavoie, Jean-Marc Couture recently found love again.

6. Season Six 2021 – William Cloutier

After a hiatus of nearly 10 years, Star Ac is back on Quebec TV in the midst of a pandemic.

Grand winner William Cloutier was already well known as part of the Quebec crowd thanks to his participation in the MixMania show in 2012.

He released his debut album On ira in 2022 and has gone on to tour alongside Lunou Zucchini, a finalist we recently saw at Zénith on Radio Canada.

On ira received a Félix Award nomination for Pop Album of the Year at the 44th Félix Awards.

William has been in Paris since the fall, taking part in the new version of the rock opera Starmania. His wife will also come to join him soon in the City of Light with their two young children.

7. Season 7 2022 – Crystal Mongo

Christel is the most recent winner and the second woman to win the highest honors.

The singer will kick off her tour across Quebec at the beginning of March 2023 alongside 2022 finalist Eloy Cummings.

After leaving the Star Academie, Krystel separates from her daughter’s husband and father, Pierre-Luc Gaulin-Lussier. But we learned at the end of 2022 that the couple had found each other and were now living happily ever after.

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