celinedream Posted May 4, 2009 at 02:53 AM Posted May 4, 2009 at 02:53 AM He'll be in Oprah on Tuesday. I'm gonna watch this for sure. I love the stories of dreams coming true...This is like Charice's story only this guy is from Quebec and he sold the tickets for his concert HIMSELF! Quebec singer follows his dream - onto Oprah Lachance's invitation to TV icon to hear him sing draws invitation to perform on her show By CATHERINE SOLYOM and MAX HARROLD, The GazetteMay 3, 2009Comments (4) StoryPhotos ( 4 ) More Images » Bernard Lachance, a Montreal singer with no record deal and no promoter but himself, will appear on The Oprah Winfrey Show Tuesday (May 5).Photograph by: ., Harpo ProductionsSix years ago, Bernard Lachance sold out the Bell Centre Theatre - literally. Not only was he the main pop-opera act that night, he personally sold all the nearly 5,000 tickets one by one, to passers-by on the sidewalk. Three self-produced albums, a Massey Hall engagement in Toronto and a new haircut later, the plucky Montrealer is taking his "adult contemporary" show to Chicago, with none other than Oprah Winfrey as middlewoman between the singer and a new anglo audience, awed by his chutzpah, if nothing else. On Tuesday, he will follow Céline Dion's footsteps from small-town Quebec to Chicago to become only the second Quebec singer to appear on Oprah. "What can I say? Oprah is like a religion," Lachance, 34, said yesterday, describing the taping Thursday of the show with Winfrey. He wowed her with his personal story and a half-English, half-French rendition of the soaring Broadway showtune The Impossible Dream, backed by 35 musicians. "It made her tear up," said Lachance, who is originally from Montmagny, near Quebec City. "She was impressed that I invested my life, all my energy, all my savings, everything for my dream." Some Oprah producers noticed Lachance a little more than a week ago on YouTube in a video inviting Winfrey to a show June 6 at the storied Chicago Theatre. He will perform there backed by 10 musicians and a 300-member choir. Lachance booked the theatre using all of his $18,000 life savings. He recruited the choir by placing ads in newspapers and on the Internet. It's part of his sales technique: He taps into everyone's Idol envy - and gets them to sell tickets to their friends and family. As with his shows at Quebec City's Le Capitole theatre in 1997 and the Bell Centre in 2003, he sold tickets by letting passers-by hear his voice from a recording and singing on the spot to confirm it was him. In Chicago, he wore a T-shirt with the theatre's seating chart on it, letting people cross out the seat they bought after paying for their ticket. "The T-shirt is a powerful tool. It tells my whole story," he said . Lachance's version of Nessun Dorma has got more than 72,000 YouTube hits, although it is tacked on to the end of the Oprah invitation. Oprah told him she couldn't make the show, so she invited him on to her show instead. Whatever his musical talents, no one can deny this likable Quebecer's drive and determination. He spent a year talking to tourists in New York's Times Square and watching reruns of Friends to improve his English. He has already sold 1,200 of the Chicago Theatre's 3,600 seats. He suggests the rest of the seats will get snapped up soon after the Oprah show airs, and a record deal will finally be at hand in the near future. But what if it all fizzles? "I'll keep doing this. I have no plan B. I'll go around singing and making shows," he said. Lachance fills his days by selling his CDs for $15 each, going to the gym, answering emails and doing his vocal exercises. Regardless of the Oprah effect, things are looking up. His music is available on iTunes, and Place des Arts told him Friday it might have a date for him to perform in the coming months. As for being called "the male Céline Dion," he is flattered but adds, with well-placed reverance, "I think she's a much better singer." csolyom@ thegazette.canwest.com mharrold@ thegazette.canwest.com © Copyright © The Montreal Gazette Quote An angel was looking through,It was you,Yeah you...it'sYou are the REASON.
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