Gregory Charles - Biography

Biography

He studied at École de musique Wilfrid-Pelletier in Montreal. At the age of 7, he won a category of the Canadian Music Competition, after which he performed with most of the country's symphonic orchestras. In 1979, he represented Canada at an international piano contest in Paris. He was also a part of Petits-Chanteurs du Mont-Royal choir, which performs at the Saint Joseph's Oratory in Montreal. He is still somewhat involved in this choir.

Shortly after entering law school in 1989, he obtained a television role which brought him to the attention of a wider public: that of Julien, a young student who comes to study in Montreal, in a TV show called Chambres en ville (Rooms in Town).

He then became host of a daily radio show at the Montreal station CKOI-FM in 1991. The year after he began hosting a television game show Que le meilleur gagne (May the Best Man Win) on Radio-Canada, for five years. In 1995, he got the job of host on a late evening television talk-show Cha-ba-da.

In 1998, he worked on Céline Dion's world tour, mostly as a chorister but also as a pianist. The same year he made the first of nine appearances at the Just for Laughs Festival in Montreal.

Since 2001, he has hosted a weekly radio show on the national Radio-Canada network, as well as a series of television shows, such as Culture Choc and "Les Debrouillards", in French and English, and a variety show on the France channel.

He is now conducting the chœurs du nouveau monde (New World Choirs) which includes notably Les Petits Chanteurs de Laval (The Little Singers of Laval) and Les Voix Boréales (Northern Voices), and before that, le Chœur Gospel de Laval (the Laval Gospel Choir).

He presented his first variety show, Noir et Blanc (Black and White) to more than 400,000 spectators across Quebec and the rest of Canada. He also performed in New York City in 2004. A unique feature of his show is the second half, in which he offers to sing and play on the piano any known song submitted randomly by the spectators.

At the end of 2004, he released his first album, from his show, called Gospel Live Noir et Blanc.

On October 16, 2006, he launched his album I Think of You, which sold 109,000 copies in its first week, making Charles the highest selling Canadian artist in a one-week period for the year 2006. It debuted at number 1 on the Nielsen SoundScan album chart. It sold 41,000 units in its second week, to bring it to a total of 150,000 units after two weeks. Charles sold more albums in 2006 than all other Canadian musicians except Nelly Furtado.

Charles was one of the headliners on Parliament Hill at the 2007 Canada Day celebration there, playing the evening's longest set, to an audience of thousands. He performed in both English and French.

However, one of his next scheduled appearances in Ottawa, where audiences were required to pay, did not fare so well. According to reports in the Ottawa Sun, Doug Moore, the city's manager of Venture Properties, said that Grégory Charles' scheduled concert at the Ottawa SuperEx was cancelled due to poor ticket sales.

In the fall of 2007, he began hosting a CBC radio program, In the Key of Charles which was last broadcast September 6, 2009.

In April 2012 Gregory Charles did a one-week stint at the Cafe Carlyle in the famous Carlyle Hotel in New York City.