Régine Chassagne

Life and career

Régine Alexandra Chassagne was born in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, and grew up in St-Lambert, a suburb south of Montreal. Her parents, who were of Haitian origin, emigrated from Haiti during the dictatorship of François Duvalier, which is alluded to in the Arcade Fire song "Haiti", in which she sings, Mes cousins jamais nés hantent les nuits de Duvalier ("My unborn cousins haunt Duvalier's nights"). The line is in reference to the relatives who were killed during the Jérémie Vespers massacre.

Chassagne attended Collège Jean-de-Brébeuf before earning a B.A. in communication studies at Concordia University in 1998, and went on to study jazz voice briefly at McGill University. She was singing jazz at an art opening at Concordia in 2000 when Win Butler met her and persuaded her to join his band. They married in 2003 and had their first child, a son, on 21 April 2013.

Chassagne has also been involved with a medieval band called Les Jongleurs de la Mandragore, and with Jimmy Rouleau the jazz duo, Azúcar. She also wrote the music for the two-minute David Uloth sketch "The Shine", and contributed to the UNICEF benefit project as part of the North American Hallowe'en Prevention Initiative, performing the song "Do They Know It's Hallowe'en?" along with Win Butler.

She plays many instruments on stage, including accordion, drums, xylophone, hurdy-gurdy, keyboards and organ. In Arcade Fire, Chassagne performs lead vocals on some songs, including "Haiti", "In the Backseat", "Empty Room", "Abraham's Daughter", and "Sprawl II (Mountains Beyond Mountains)".

In March 2015, Chassagne, along with husband and Arcade Fire bandmate Win Butler, attended the launch of music streaming service Tidal, and revealed themselves, along with other notable artists, as shareholders in the company.