Brigitte Martel

Jacques Bélanger was famous throughout Québec at the age of 11 with the song ‘Maman, tu es la plus belle du monde’. At age 20 he sang in a transvestite review and found out about sex changes. Jacques transitioned in 1972 and became Jacqueline Bélanger. She restarted her career as a chanteuse under the name Brigitte Martel. She married a man in 1981 and published her autobiography the same year. In 1987 her mother died and she had a period of depression. As the Montréal cabarets closed she found it hard to work. She was one of the founders of l’Association des Transsexuelles du Québec (ATQ) and performed for their fundraiser each year. She died at home of a cardiac arrest.