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"Mon pays" ("My Country", or "My Homeland", in English) is a song composed by Quebec singer-songwriter Gilles Vigneault in 1964.<ref name=canenc>Suzanne Thomas, Stephen C. Willis and Hélène Plouffe, "Mon Pays". The Canadian Encyclopedia, November 20, 2011.</ref>
The song was written for the NFB film The Snow Has Melted on the Manicouagan (La Neige a fondu sur la Manicouagan), directed by Arthur Lamothe.<ref name=canenc/> The song consists of six stanzas of lyrics about winds, cold, snow, and ice, of the solitude of wide open spaces and of the ideal of brotherhood.<ref name="Berg2012">Template:Cite book</ref><ref>"Gilles Vigneault's powerful dream of un pays". Montreal Gazette, June 23, 2018, Bernard Perusse</ref> Its theme, "'Mon pays ce n'est pas un pays, c'est l'hiver", is well-known throughout the province.<ref name="Knowles2007">Template:Cite book</ref> As well as expressing the natural beauty and praising the special characteristics of the composer's Quebec homeland, the song is seen by many people as declaring the free spirit of the province;<ref name="Lecoeuvre2017">Template:Cite book</ref><ref name="BroughtonEllingham1999">Template:Cite book</ref> Vigneault has denied that this was ever his intention; however, he has been firm that "mon pays" refers to Quebec and should not be associated with Canada as a whole.<ref>"No harmony here: the controversy over an iconic Quebec song". John Furlong, The Globe and Mail, February 4, 2011</ref>
Vigneault won the Prix Félix-Leclerc at the 1965 Festival du disque de Montréal for the song.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> Later that same year, Monique Leyrac performed it at the International Song Festival in Sopot, Poland, taking first prize with it.<ref name="Colombo1978">Template:Cite book</ref>
In 1977, the melody from "Mon Pays" was reworked into the disco song "From New York to L.A." recorded by Patsy Gallant. This song with English lyrics by Gene Williams unrelated to the original French, was an international hit for Gallant<ref>Brencan Kelly, "Patsy Gallant looks back at 'road map of my life' in documentary". Montreal Gazette, December 2, 2016</ref> - Canada/ #6 Pop, #1 Adult Contemporary,<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>/ the UK/ #6, Ireland/ #5, Australia/ #10, the Netherlands/ #15, Norway/ #7, South Africa/ #5, Sweden/ #17, - and in 1995 reached #5 in Austria via a remake credited to N.Y.L.A. featuring Stephanie McKay.