A singer who trained in classical and jazz while growing up in Quebec City, Diane Tell already had a sure sense of herself when she released her self-titled debut in 1977. The fact that the then-teenage Tell wrote her own compositions—one of the first French-Canadian performers to do so—and performed a variety of styles made her arrival even more auspicious. She’d continue to impress thanks to the sincerity and wit of her songs and a supple voice that suited not just the pop and jazz settings of early hits like “Les cinéma-bars” but the synth-heavy R&B of “J’arrive pas j’arrive” and the richly layered folk rock of “Haiku”.