Lara Fabian

Lara Sophie Katy Crokaert (born 9 January 1970), known professionally as Lara Fabian, is a Belgian and Canadian singer and songwriter.

She has sold over 20 million records worldwide as of 2021 and is one of the best-selling Belgian artists of all time.

She was born in Etterbeek, Brussels, to a Belgian father and a Sicilian mother.

She lived the first part of her childhood in Catania, Sicily, speaking Italian as her first language.

During the 1980s, Fabian entered a number of European competitions and won several prizes.

She released her first single, "L'Aziza est en pleurs" / "Il y avait" in 1986.

In 1988, the RTL TV channel in Luxembourg invited Fabian to represent the country at the 33rd Eurovision Song Contest, held that year in Dublin, Ireland.

The song was a composition by Jacques Cardona and Alain Garcia entitled Croire (Belief) which reached a respectable fourth place (while Celine Dion won the contest representing Switzerland).

The single became a hit in Europe, selling nearly 500,000 copies.

In 1990, Fabian and musical collaborator Rick Allison moved to Montreal, Quebec, Canada to embark on a career in North America.

They started their own music label and publishing company, Productions Clandestines.

She moved to Quebec in 1991 and since 1995, she has held Canadian citizenship alongside her Belgian one.

In August 1991, her self-titled French-language debut album, Lara Fabian, was released in Canada and sold over 100,000 copies.

The success of upbeat dance-pop singles such as "Le jour où tu partiras", "Les murs", and "Qui pense à l'amour" gave Fabian radio exposure.

She received several nominations at the 1993 ADISQ Awards, and a poll published around that time voted her Québec's most promising singer.

Constant touring in Québec helped Fabian's 1994 album Carpe diem become her breakthrough album.

The album went gold three weeks after its release, and spawned three hit singles: "Tu t'en vas", "Si tu m'aimes", and "Leïla".

The following year, the album went double platinum.

Fabian received two Félix Awards at the 1995 ADISQ gala: Best Show of The Year and Best Female Singer of The Year (a category that is voted for by the public).

In 1996, Walt Disney Studios hired Fabian as the voice of the character of Esmeralda in the Canadian French version of the animated feature The Hunchback of Notre Dame.

Disney also included "Que Dieu aide les exclus", Fabian's French version of the song "God Help The Outcasts", on the film's English soundtrack album alongside Bette Midler's version.

Since 1996 Lara Fabian has also held Canadian citizenship alongside her original Belgian passport.

After the success of Carpe diem, Fabian signed a contract with the French Polydor label for several albums and Pure was released in June 1997.

Pure sold more than two million copies in France; the album went platinum in less than two weeks, and spawned several hit singles: "Tout", "Je t'aime", "Humana", "Si tu m'aimes", and the anti-homophobia anthem "La Différence".

The album won a Félix Award for Popular Album of the Year at the 1997 ADISQ gala and was nominated for two Juno Awards in the Best Selling French Album category, and for Fabian as Best Female Singer.

In February 1998, Fabian received the Discovery of the Year award during the Victoires de la Musique Gala.

Also in 1998, Polydor released Carpe diem in Europe.

In November 1998, she received the Félix Award for Artist with the Most Recognition Outside Quebec at the 'ADISQ Gala'.

In December, she was named as Revelation of the Year by Paris Match, which put her on its cover to mark this occasion.

In March 1999, Fabian released her first live album, named Live, which debuted at #1 on the French charts.

This helped seal an international recording contract with Sony Music.

In May 1999, Fabian was honoured at the World Music Awards in Monaco as Best selling Benelux artist.

In July 1999, with over six million records already sold across Europe, Polydor rereleased Fabian's self-titled debut album.

In the summer of 1999, Fabian recorded her first English-language album, Lara Fabian, in New York and San Francisco for the Sony label.

The songs were written and produced with Rick Allison and Dave Pickell, Walter Afanasieff, Glen Ballard and Patrick Leonard.

In 2003, she returned to Brussels to be close to her parents in Belgium and in 2015 lived in Walloon Brabant province in Belgium just outside Brussels.

In 2017, she returned permanently to Montreal, Quebec, to be with her family.

Fabian is the only child of Pierre Crokaert, who is Flemish, and Maria Luisa Serio, a Sicilian.

She was raised in the Belgian town of Ruisbroek.

Fabian's parents recognized her talent early on and enrolled her in the Royal Conservatory of Brussels when she was eight years old; she studied there for 10 years.