Right from the age of five, Lara knew she wanted to sing. Accompanied by her musician father, an ex-guitarist and back vocalist for Petula Clark, she began her singing career at 14 in Brussels’ boîtes à chanson. A few years later, she entered a number of European competitions and won several prizes. Then, at 18, she sang Croire in the prestigious Eurovision competition and was awarded fourth prize. It’s at this time that her first recordings, both on the French Tréma label, make a good impression on the public. Her songs Croire and Je sais sold 500,000 and 300,000 copies respectively. A year earlier, she had recorded a first single, L’aziza est en pleurs. Following her European successes, Lara arrives in Quebec to promote Je sais and falls in love with the place. With her friend Rick Allison at her side, two suitcases and $1,000 in her pocket, she decides to embark on a career in America. A first album simply entitled Lara Fabian that had been recorded earlier in Belgium was launched in August 1991. Slowly but surely, the public responds to her perseverance and becomes fascinated by her talent and her inimitable spunk. The success of songs like Le jour où tu partiras, Les murs and Qui pense à l’amour give Lara the exposure she needs on the airwaves. Her skill as a songwriter is acknowledged with Je m’arrêterai pas de t’aimer and this first album is certified gold in 1993 and platinum the following year. For her efforts, Lara is nominated at the ADISQ gala and a poll reveals she is considered Quebec’s most promising singer.

In less than three weeks, the album goes gold and three of its songs—Tu t’en vas, Si tu m’aimes and Leïla—find themselves on the Top-50 radio hit-parade. The following year, the album almost goes triple platinum and the tour attracts more than 150,000 fans. This phenomenal success is recognized by the 1995 ADISQ gala where Lara receives two Félix awards: Best Show of The Year and Best Female Singer of The Year which is voted by the public. In January 1996, at the request of Serge Lama, Lara joins the singer on the stage of the Paris Palais des Congrès to perform Je suis malade, a song she had sung on her Carpe Diem album. Upon seeing the audience’s response to the duo, Serge Lama right away asked Lara to sing the song once more—on her own—to the great delight of those present. This contact with the French public would be just a sample of what would come less than two years later. The Walt Disney Studios immortalize Lara’s voice in 1996 when they ask her to do the voice for the character Esmeralda and sing a song in the animated feature The Hunchback of Notre-Dame. Disney also decides to include Lara’s French version on the English film score album beside that of Bette Midler’s version, a first. That same year, Pure, Lara’s third album, is released in October and goes platinum in less than two weeks. For this recording, Lara is awarded a Félix for Popular Album of The Year at the 1997 ADISQ gala and is also nominated for two Juno awards in the Best Female Singer and Best Selling French Album categories. This recognition once again attracts the attention of movie studios. The producer of Daylight, starring Sylvester Stallone, entrusts her and Rick Allison with Tant qu’il y aura de l’amour, the French version of the song performed by Donna Summer and Bruce Roberts, and produced by David Foster.

Sales of Pure hit the 2 millions mark with excerpts Tout, Je t’aime and Humana each selling more than 1 million records. In January of 1998, the French get the chance to hear Lara sing a duo with Johnny Hallyday at a benefit concert given for the Restos du Cœur and during a tour that includes two sold-out shows at L’Olympia. A month later, on this very stage, Lara is given the Discovery of The Year award during the Victoires de la musique gala. Soon after, to satisfy public demand, Polydor finally releases Carpe Diem on the European market. After a sold-out two-night stint at the Paris Palais des Sports in April, Lara is even more in demand. Once again she is invited to perform with Johnny Hallyday during several concerts given at the Stade de France in front of 240,000 fans. The following fall, Lara begins a European tour that reaches more than 100,000 fans who demonstrate to the world that Lara has very much arrived.

She thus becomes the first female Canadian singer ever to be honoured by the Paris institution. Although she’s busy in Europe, Lara finds the time to cross the Atlantic and record her first English-language album in New York and San Francisco for the Sony label. The songs are written and produced with the help of her faithful partner Rick Allison and Dave Pickell as well as with Walter Afanasieff, Glen Ballard and Pat Leonard all regular contributors to the work of several international stars. This first much-awaited English-language album is released in 1999. If the past is any indication of what’s to come, one can easily imagine that Lara will, once again, enthral a new audience and then win over still more fans to her unique talent.