Garou的本名是Pierre Garand，1972年6月26日出生在加拿大Québec(魁北克)的Sherbrooke (舍布鲁克)。从小他就受到了良好的音乐教育，他的父母3岁就让他学习吉他演奏，之后不久又学了钢琴、小号、甚至还有管风琴！青少年时期的Garou在Sherbrooke的修道院学校里学习，虽然身为优等生，他却对学校里严格的纪律和老师的权威感到不满。也是在这个时候，他和班里的几个同学组成了自己的第一个乐队The Windows and Doors，在学校里演出Beatles的经典曲目。当时流行互相称呼对方的姓的源名称，就是说Garand是 由Garou演变而来，而现在大家又再次称呼他的姓为Garou。渐渐地，Garou这个名字一直沿用到了今天。高中毕业以后，Garou参加了加拿大军队的管乐团，担任小号手。1992年的时候，他觉得这样下去没有大的发展，所以退役了。之后的一年里，他尝试了各种各样的小工作：搬运工、推销员、葡萄采摘工……不过不论干什么他每晚都会出现在当地的酒吧门前，一个人、一只吉他，几首魁北克的老歌，Garou完全征服了过往的行人，大家都聚集在他周围欣赏这不同寻常的嗓音。 一次偶然的机会，他的朋友Isabelle 请他去听Louis Alary演唱，而且在Louis演唱的时候，她大胆地请求把麦克给Garou，之后便是“一鸣惊人”的故事了。当时酒吧的老板介绍他开始在东部的几个大区的酒吧里做巡回演唱，并且一个名为“Liquor Store”的酒吧还组织了“Les dimanches à Garou”的周末特别节目。这样的演出生活一直持续了4年。1995年，他和几个音乐人一起，组织了乐队“The Untouchables”，受到了当地的欢迎。而之后在Garou 的Seul avec vous的巡回演唱会里，他还特意邀请了这些昔日的老朋友一同献艺。1997年无疑是一个转折点：Gaoru 已是小有名气了，而Luc Plamondon觉得他很适合notre dame里的Quasimodo一角，就把他介绍给了Richard Cocciante，在试唱过之后，这个角色毫无疑问地属于他了。自此，从巴黎到伦敦，到蒙特利尔，Garou成了大家熟识的明星，并且赢得了Felix的魁北克年度最佳新人奖，Belle这首歌还帮助他获得了World Music Awards。他在法国音乐剧《巴黎圣母院》中饰演男主角卡西莫多，表现出色，令人印象深刻。
French pop singer Garou vaulted to fame as Quasimodo in the 1998 stage musical Notre-Dame de Paris. Born Pierre Garand in Sherbrooke, Quebec, on June 26, 1972, he was a child prodigy who mastered piano and guitar while still in primary school. As a teen, he joined his classmates’ rock band Windows and Doors, and later played trumpet in a Canadian military marching band. While working day jobs including fashion store clerk and produce picker, Garou continued moonlighting in Montreal-area clubs and busking on street corners. During the mid-’90s, he was a weekly fixture at the Sherbrooke nightspot the Liquor Store of Magog, and also fronted his own band, the Untouchables. In 1997 Garou met theatrical producer Luc Plamondon, who cast him in the starring role of Quasimodo in Notre-Dame de Paris, a musical adaptation of The Hunchback of Notre Dame. The production proved a box office smash, and after a run at Paris’ Palais des Congres, Garou continued his performance during the show’s French tour. On New Year’s Eve 1999, Garou also joined Canadian pop icon Celine Dion on-stage during a Montreal concert, and with the help of Dion’s manager/grandfather, Rene Angelil, he soon signed a recording contract, issuing his solo debut, Seul, in late 2000. “Sous le Vent,” Garou’s duet with Dion, proved an international hit and the singer went on to win four Adisq Gala Awards, including Best Male Singer and Best Pop-Rock Album. Reviens followed in 2004, and in mid-2006 Garou issued his self-titled third LP.
