Crystal Plamondon

Who is Crystal Plamondon?

Crystal Plamondon is a trilingual singer and performer of Cajun and country music.

Plamondon's birth town was founded by her grandfather. She began singing publicly at the age of ten but didn’t record until 1991 when she made her own cassette. Plamondon lists her musical influences as Daniel Lanois, Zachary Richard, Dolly Parton, Sting, and Emmylou Harris. She has released three CDs: Carpe Diem in 1993, La Rousse Farouche in 1996 and her most recent one Plus de Frontières in 2002. Plus de Frontières was nominated for a Western Canadian Music Award for “Outstanding Francophone Recording” in 2003. She speaks three languages: English, French, and Cree.

In 1992, she received the Molson Canadian ARIA Performer of the Year Award. In 1993, she was nominated for YWCA’s Tribute to Women Award, for Arts & Culture. In 1994, Plamondon was given formal recognition of her talents by being made an honorary citizen of Breaux Bridge, Louisiana. Her music videos, Rendez-vous en Louisiane and Cajun Girl/ La Cajine filmed in Plamondon, Alberta, receive regular play in the southern U.S. and in Canada.

Plamondon had a television special filmed in Benin, West Africa and in her Alberta home in November, 1998 called Passeport Musique for Radio Canada. She has also performed live on Parliament Hill in 1997 for the Canada Day celebration; and on October 18, 2000 Crystal sang the Famous Five Anthem for the inauguration of the "Women are Persons!" monument on Parliament Hill to commemorate the day that women were declared "persons" in 1929.