La Bolduc - Legacy

Legacy

Some debate exists among historians as to whether Mary Bolduc or Félix Leclerc should be identified as Quebec's first singer/songwriter. Either way, both had significant influence on the development of Quebec's folk music culture from the 1930s onwards. Bolduc was the most widely known folk music singer of Quebec in the 1930s. Her humorous images of daily life, her realism in depicting the society of the time, and her satirical characters all appear in the work of subsequent singer/songwriters. Although it was received poorly by critics of the day, Bolduc's use of colloquialisms and working-class vocabulary influenced future musicians like Gilles Vigneault and Clémence Desrochers. Other Québécois musicians with notable influences from Bolduc include Oscar Thiffault, whose style was descended from Bolduc, André Gagnon, whose composition Les Turluteries is based on Bolduc's use of Turlutage, and Robert Charlebois, who also sang in the dual French Canadian and English derived style and used the everyday slang of Quebec.

On August 12, 1994, a stamp was released that honoured her with her portrait on a Canadian postage stamp. The stamp was designed by Pierre Fontaine based on images from Bernard Leduc. Seven and a half million copies were printed. The same year, a park was created in her hometown of Newport named Mary Travers Park.

In 2002, Mary Bolduc was made a MasterWorks honouree by the Audio-Visual Preservation Trust of Canada.