Donald Lautrec

Who is Donald Lautrec?

Donald Lautrec is a Canadian singer and actor.

With a friend in 1957, Lautrec created the acrobatic duo, Don and Lee, who performed on trampolines throughout Canada and the United States. He then mixed in the entertainment world by working as a lighting technician, a master of ceremonies in several Montreal cabarets and, for a short time, as a bodyguard to Québécois singer Michel Louvain. He then met impresario Yvan Dufresne who had discovered Louvain, and asked him to help launch his own singing career.

Dufresne accepted and began by booking Lautrec in the Hotel Central Saint-Martin in Laval, Quebec in 1961. That year Dufresne also arranged for Lautrec to record his first 45 rpm, Personne au monde.

In the following years, Lautrec became one of Quebec's top pop music stars. In 1964, he popularized the ska, a dance inspired by Jamaican ska with the songs C'est le Ska and Manon, viens danser le ska. In 1965 and 1966, he solidified his success with Tu dis des bêtises, Action and Loins dans ma campagne which he sang in the movie Pas de vacances pour les idoles. In 1966 he travelled to France where he participated in television and radio, and received the Newcomer of the Year Award at the Gala des Artistes.