Heartthrob Voisine engaged
Move should end rumours he's gay
The Ottawa Citizen, Dec 9 2000
TONY LOFARO
Roch Voisine says his management created ambiguity over his sexuality.
Roch Voisine has finally come clean -- he is engaged to longtime girlfriend Kimberly Bemis.
The fact that he hopes to marry (no date has been set) the Seattle businesswoman and raise a family will come as a surprise to many fans who believed the constant rumours that the New Brunswick-born pop singer is gay.
But this week, first in an interview with the National Post, then with the Citizen, Voisine confirmed that he is heterosexual and that his managers deliberately created the ambiguity over his sexuality years ago to help his appeal with both straight and gay fans.
"I could never understand why it had that much importance, but maybe we did not manage it very well back then ... thinking it's better that people talk about you (than not talk about you at all)," the 37-year-old singer said.
"It made my life more interesting than it really was."
Voisine, currently on a Canadian tour, performs Monday at the National Arts Centre singing mostly songs from his English Christmas CD Christmas Is Calling and his French CD L'Album de Noel.
"It probably was a mistake by management," he says, reflecting on rumours that dogged his career for the past 10 years.
Voisine says he went along with management's tactics "not knowing any better" and besides, he adds, he could not understand why such a fuss was being made about his sexuality. He says he spoke out and defended his heterosexuality, but figures the public perception of him of being gay remained.
"It never really got out of hand, but it was the only thing back then that people could actually have some kind of controversy regarding me and my career. They couldn't say I couldn't sing, they couldn't say I didn't look good, they couldn't say I wasn't successful, so they had to find something. It's just too bad. "
He says he met his girlfriend three years ago through friends and they have been living together in his homes in Montreal, France and Los Angeles. She is a successful Internet executive who is busy managing her own business, although she sometimes joins Voisine on tour.
"We're not quite there yet in terms of getting married. When I get married I want kids, and when I want kids I won't be on the road anymore, so I will have to make difficult choices in my life in the next few years."
A strong family unit has always been important to Voisine and he speaks fondly of his years growing up in St. Basile, N.B. On the covers of his new CDs are photos of Voisine as a youngster with his family, dressed in winter clothing and meeting Santa Claus. After his parents divorced, Voisine and his younger brother Marc and sister Janice went to live with their grandparents. The three children eventually moved back in with their father, but he remained close to his grandfather, who died last year.
Voisine says his Christmas CDs were recorded in April and mark the first time he's released a collection of Christmas songs. On the English CD are many of the classics: White Christmas, Silent Night and The Christmas Song, plus Christmas Is Calling, a song he has performed often in concert but never recorded.
"The way we approached the record musically is sort of a country-gentleman pop album and not a Christmas record," he says of the 15 tracks on the English CD.
"It means we stayed away from the cliches from the bells and a lot of things and concentrated a little more on the songs. Once you put away all the Christmas cliches you realize they are beautiful songs, they are timeless songs with wonderful melodies."
For a change of pace, Voisine does an acoustic version of Joy to the World, he gives a jazzy tone to I'll Be Home For Christmas, and offers a bluegrass country feel to O Christmas Tree. He also gives a soulful, earthy touch to Happy Christmas (War is Over), the John Lennon composition.
Voisine says he decided to record the CDs mainly because fans begged him to release a collection of Christmas songs.
"We did a Christmas medley at the end of the Kissing Rain tour in 1997 and it had so much success that people on the street for two years after asked me when I was going to make a Christmas album."
Roch Voisine performs Monday at 8 p.m. in Southam Hall at the National Arts Centre. Tickets, at $25.50, $29.50 and $36.50, are available at the NAC box office or, with surcharges, through TicketMaster, 755-1111.
Copyright 2000 Ottawa Citizen Group Inc.