Chanson Québécoise

Chanson québécoise is the French-language song tradition of Quebec, encompassing folk singers, chansonniers and rock and pop artists who write and perform in Quebec French. From the turlutage and rural repertoire of *La Bolduc* in the 1930s, through the poetic chanson of *Félix Leclerc* and *Gilles Vigneault*, to the rock of *Robert Charlebois*, *Harmonium* and *Les Cowboys Fringants*, it has functioned as a principal vehicle of Quebec identity: its songs articulate attachment to territory, winter, language and collective memory, and its history tracks the province's passage from rural Catholic society to assertive modern nation.