It should be noted that Rene Angelil was a major figure in French Canada. He helped launch many careers before he discovered and invested his life savings into Celine Dion. Rene Simard, another child prodigy got his start with the help of Rene Angelil in the early 1970s. He also launched Ginette Reno and her powerful alto voice from the cabarets of Montreal onto the big theatre stages in Paris, Brussels and Montreal. He helped launch many other singers from the boite a chansons onto larger theatre stages.
His Star Academie show has been particularly successful, discovering many of the most recent popular chanseuses to take over the Quebec top 40.
It is largely not visible in the Anglo media in Canada but Angelil's death is being reported wall-to-wall in the Franco media.
