Serge Fiori, a singer and songwriter who is best known for co-founding the Canadian rock group Harmonium, passed away on June 24. He was 73 years old.
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According to CTV News, Fiori was discovered in his Lac St-Jean home. Those close to them revealed he had been struggling healthwise and had heart difficulties. However, his sudden death came as a surprise to those close to him.
“I didn’t expect that he’d die so fast,” Louis Valois, who co-founded Harmonium with Fiori in the ’70s, shared. “I was talking to him three, two nights ago. He was like, OK, he was sick for sure.”
Serge Fiori Started His Music Career in the Early 1970s
Serge Fiori grew up in the Little Italy district of Montreal, Canada. In 1972, he teamed up with Louis Valois and Michel Normandeu to create Harmonium. The group recorded three studio albums: Harmonium (1974), Les Cinq Saisons (1975) and L’Heptade (1976).
Fiori’s biographer Louise Thériault reflected on the late musician’s career, noting that the one compromise he refused to make was singing in English.
“In 1978, Columbia Records wanted to sign a contract with him for $1 million, but he had to sing in English, and he refused it,” Thériault recalled. “So the band was really upset… $1 million back then was a lot of money, and he refused it.”
The group officially disbanded in 1978. Fiori began collaborating with fellow musician Richard Séguin and recorded Deux cents nuits à l’heure. Following the collaboration, Fiori moved to Los Angeles, where he studied meditation, computer science, and composition.
He returned to the music scene in 1983 as a songwriter for various artists. Among the artists he worked with were Diane Dufresne and Nanette Workman. He wrote the theme song for the Canadian comedian festival Just for Laughs in 1984. Throughout the 1990s, he wrote film scores.
Nearly thirty years after Deux cents nuits à l’heure, Fiori released a solo album, Serge Fiori, in 2014. In 2018, he collaborated with Louis-Jean Cormier for the Seul ensemble.