Career
She describes herself as "a jazz singer with a very "rock" attitude". As a musician Montcalm sings and plays acoustic guitar, which she has played since a young age, as well as playing double bass. Her influences include artists from a variety of genres, including Jimi Hendrix, Elvis Presley and Billie Holiday and her music has been compared to that of Edith Piaf and Janis Joplin.
Her career started in 1981 and during her early years as a musician, she performed as a warm-up act for bands such as Cowboy Junkies.
As of October 2009, she had released five studio albums. The tour following the release of the album consisted of over 100 shows in Canada and around Europe.
Her second album, Parle Pas Si Fort was brought out in 1997 and this was followed by an eponymous album in 2002. Her 2009 album, Connection, fared even better in France, reaching a top position of #37 on 3 October 2009.
Thérèse Montcalm was born in Quebec, Canada, in 1963.
At the age of seven, she formed an ambition to forge a career out of singing after seeing the René Simard film "Une enfant comme les autres". During her early musical life she opened for such artists as Cowboy Junkies and Robert Charlebois while working at Popico"s theatre in Alberta. After a short period in Montreal as part of the duo Beaux Esprits in the autumn of 1993, Montcalm returned to Quebec and entered the recording studios to produce her début studio album.
She released Risque in 1994, an album which featured performances from fourteen different musicians and earned her five Félix Award nominations in 1995, including Female Singer of the Year, and Best People’s/Rock Album.
The album proved popular and was followed by a major tour consisting of over 100 concerts in Canada, France, Belgium and Switzerland. Three years after the release of her first album, she released the record Parle Pas Si Fort in 1997 on Universal Records.
The album was again followed by a tour, which was this time limited to shows in the area around Quebec. After the excessive amount of touring, Montcalm took a break from performing live and devoted the following three years to writing new material and practising the double bass.
In February 2002, she released her third studio album, the eponymous Térez Montcalm.
Foreign her fourth album, Montcalm hired jazz guitarist Michel Cusson as a producer. The album was her first to be sung in English. Her previous three recordings had been in French.
The album consisted of a mixture of original compositions, interpretations of jazz classics and adaptations of songs by such artists as Elton John and the Eurythmics.
In November 2006, Dreyfus Records released the album in Europe. After entering the French albums chart at #150 over a year after its initial release, the record reached a peak position of #43 in May 2007.
She embarked on a tour of Europe in the same year, playing over 150 dates in cities such as Paris, Milan and Rome. In 2008, Montcalm returned to the studio and again hired Cusson to produce her fifth album.
Connection was released in her homeland on 10 February 2009.