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Richard Séguin

Canadian songwriter, poet, visual artist

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
People and ideasInterpretive dossier study · Crown Archives visual atlas
Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionSep 20, 2026
Entity authorityQ3431253
Source-derived summary

Richard Séguin (born March 27, 1952) is a Québécois songwriter, musician and singer.

His music career began in the 1970s with the duo Les Séguin, with his twin sister Marie-Claire. The duo achieved considerable popular success in Québec. Their folk reprise of Felix Leclerc's Le train du nord enjoyed huge radio play and record sales, along with other titles. Richard Séguin has led a solo career since 1979, frequently collaborating with his sister Marie Claire on many of her own solo albums.

Séguin has received several prizes, including Felix Awards from the Québec music industry association ADISQ. Some of his albums were certified platinum (sales of over 100 000 copies).

Séguin's songwriting features a delicately intertwined tapestry of blues, folk and rock music influences, feeding from the works of many musicians from Québec and abroad, a reflection of the artist's wide-open range of inspiration. Séguin's lyrics abound with powerful, striking metaphors, illustrating how power relationships not only modify social structures, but personal life as well. A few of his songs have been translated and recorded in English by Gary "U.S." Bonds.

In addition to his lifelong involvement in songwriting, Séguin has also developed considerable skills as a visual artist.

Editorial summary

The public source identifies “Richard Séguin” as canadian songwriter, poet, visual artist. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Richard, Séguin and Canadian.

Editorial reviewA productive starting point for separating a subject’s documented career from later reputation and commemoration. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1952, 1979—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1952-03-27. Its value is orientation rather than verdict, with Richard, Séguin and Canadian providing the first useful test.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

A short description can identify a subject without explaining its stakes. For “Richard Séguin”, the useful work is to connect “canadian songwriter, poet, visual artist” to the records capable of establishing context and consequence.

Evidence profile

The entry’s evidential value lies in the named roles, institutions and publications that can be tested against primary documentation. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 20, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q3431253. VIAF identifies the subject as 18865019. The Library of Congress control number is n91096881. 5 of 5 selected statements include explicit references; 2 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1952 and 1979.

Critical limits

Public reputation and documentary evidence do not always develop together; absence from a summary is not evidence of historical absence. The lead is largely declarative, so disagreement and counter-evidence require a deliberate search beyond the opening account. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

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  2. Expand the search: follow Richard Séguin primary sources, Richard Séguin archive and Richard research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Richard Séguin” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.