Régine Chassagne
Régine Alexandra Chassagne (French pronunciation: [ʁeʒin ʃasaɲ]; born 19 August 1976)[1] is a Canadian singer, songwriter, musician, and multi-instrumentalist, and is a member of the band Arcade Fire. She is married to co-founder Win Butler.
Régine Chassagne
Régine Alexandra Chassagne
Musician
- Vocals
- piano
- keyboards
- keytar
- accordion
- percussion
- hurdy-gurdy
- recorder
2000–present
Early life and career[edit]
Régine Alexandra Chassagne was born in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, and grew up in St-Lambert, a suburb south of Montreal.[2][3] Her parents, who were Haitians of mixed French and African descent, moved from Haiti during the dictatorship of François Duvalier, which is alluded to in the Arcade Fire song "Haïti", in which she sings, Mes cousins jamais nés hantent les nuits de Duvalier ("My unborn cousins haunt Duvalier's nights").[4] The line is in reference to the relatives who were killed during the Jérémie Vespers massacre.
Chassagne attended Collège Jean-de-Brébeuf before earning a B.A. in communication studies at Concordia University[5] in 1998,[6] and went on to study jazz voice briefly at McGill University.[7] She was singing jazz at an art opening at Concordia in 2000, when Win Butler met her and persuaded her to join his band. They married in 2003. Ten years later, their son was born on 21 April 2013.[8][9]
Chassagne has also been involved with a medieval-themed band called Les Jongleurs de la Mandragore[10] and with Jimmy Rouleau in the jazz duo Azúcar.[11] She also wrote the music for the two-minute David Uloth short film "The Shine", and she contributed to the UNICEF benefit project as part of the North American Hallowe'en Prevention Initiative, performing the song "Do They Know It's Hallowe'en?" along with Win Butler.
She plays many instruments on stage, including accordion, drums, xylophone, hurdy-gurdy, keyboards, organ and guitar. In Arcade Fire, Chassagne performs lead vocals on some songs, including "Haiti", "In the Backseat", "Black Wave/Bad Vibrations", "Empty Room", "Abraham's Daughter", "Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)", "Creature Comfort", "Electric Blue", and "Unconditional II (Race and Religion)".
In March 2015, Chassagne, along with Win Butler, attended the launch of music streaming service Tidal, and revealed themselves, along with other notable artists, as shareholders in the company.[12]