1. Karim Ouellet was a Senegalese-born Canadian pop singer-songwriter.
19 Facts About Karim Ouellet
1. 2.
Karim Ouellet released three albums between 2011 and 2016; his second album Fox won a Juno Award in 2014.
3.
Karim Ouellet was adopted by Canadian diplomats at the age of one.
4.
Karim Ouellet lived in France, Rwanda and Tunisia, before his family returned to live in Quebec City when he was 15.
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Karim Ouellet learned to play the piano, percussion, and guitar as a child, and recounted composing his first song when he was seven.
6.
Karim Ouellet took up the electric guitar as a teenager, and began playing with local bands.
7.
Karim Ouellet met Claude Begin in around 2005; Begin co-wrote the lyrics and music for Ouellet's first three albums.
8.
Karim Ouellet released his debut album, Plume, in 2011, and was the second-place finisher in that year's Francouvertes competition.
9.
Karim Ouellet toured extensively, including appearances at the Francofolies de La Rochelle, Osheaga, and SXSW festivals.
10.
Karim Ouellet received three nominations at the Felix Awards in 2013, including Best Male Singer, Best Single for "L'Amour" and Pop Album of the Year.
11.
Karim Ouellet was designated as best new artist by Radio-Canada that year.
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Karim Ouellet followed up later the same year with Aikido, a downloadable free mini-album.
13.
Karim Ouellet's music followed a folk-pop style with some reggae and African music influences.
14.
Karim Ouellet was a frequent collaborator with several hip hop groups, including CEA and Movezerbe.
15.
One month after what would have been his 37th birthday, Karim Ouellet was found dead on the evening of January 17,2022, at L'Unisson studio in Quebec City's Saint-Roch neighbourhood.
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Karim Ouellet was reportedly working on his fourth album at the time.
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The coroner's report indicated that Karim Ouellet had died two full months before his body was found, on November 15,2021, and ruled that his cause of death was diabetic ketoacidosis.
18.
The coroner noted that Karim Ouellet suffered from substance abuse disorder since 2019 and that methamphetamine was found in his blood and cocaine was found in the studio where he died.
19.
Karim Ouellet served as the French-language spokesman for Black History Month in Canada in 2018.