Serge Fiori's national funeral celebrates his life, his music and his dream for Quebec
The national funeral for Serge Fiori Tuesday afternoon at Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier of Place des Arts was much more than a funeral. It was actually a full-scale tribute concert in honour of the iconic Québécois singer-songwriter and co-founder of the much-loved progressive-rock band Harmonium.
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But it wasn't just a concert, either. It was a heartfelt homage to the man and the musician from a slew of homegrown stars, almost all of whom had either worked with him or were good friends of his. In the end, this magical, nearly two-hour event was a nostalgic love letter to a time — Harmonium's heyday in the mid-1970s — when Fiori and millions of other Quebecers dreamed of someday creating their own country.
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Fiori, a Montrealer with Italian roots, never wavered in his support of the independence movement and for fighting for the French language ici, even though his songs never explicitly referenced such matters. He died on June 24, Quebec's Fête nationale, at the age of 73.
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Many on stage Tuesday underlined his commitment to Quebec, starting with Premier François Legault, who was one of the first speakers. He said he wore out his copy of the first Harmonium album as a teenager in 1974.
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'He made us more proud to be Québécois,' said Legault.
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Former Quebec City mayor Régis Labeaume, a friend of Fiori, said the two agreed on everything except hockey. Labeaume was a Quebec Nordiques fan, Fiori a fervent fan of les Canadiens.
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'You would never accept us saying 'no,'' said Labeaume, clearly referring to Fiori's position on the two referendum campaigns. 'And that, we're going to remember.'
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Parti Québécois Leader Paul St-Pierre Plamondon — who, at 48, is much younger than Harmonium's original boomer fans — said before Tuesday's event that Fiori spoke for a generation, and that it was always about much more than music with the singer-songwriter.
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'The generation before mine, the people who lived through the golden era of Harmonium, it's almost like a cult,' said St-Pierre Plamondon. 'So it's the celebration of a genius. But it's also recognizing someone who was the opening act for René Lévesque.'
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That's a reference to Harmonium's trip with the first Parti Québécois premier to California in 1978 to promote Quebec and the band.
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'They went to California to talk about Quebec and independence,' said St-Pierre Plamondon. 'In one of (Fiori's) last interviews, he said that if we don't deliver this project (of independence), Quebec culture has no future.'
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