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French-speaking music has its heroes: Jacques Brel is one of them. He’s born April 8Th, 1929, in a Bruxelles suburb called Schaerbeek. « Brel’s legend » starts with the life of a young actor, with a wife called Miche and a baby. His first record was published in 1953 in Belgium; but the strenght of his texts and his violent interpretation is disturbing. « Humans are unhappy because they don’t realise their own dreams » he said: he decided to leave for Paris and lived in Montmartre. The first years were difficult in spite of his new contract with the record company Philips. « Quand on a que l’amour » was released in 1957: this first success gives him the Grand Prix de l’Académie Charles Gros. His fourth record « La valse à 1000 temps » came out in 1959: he sang at Olympia in 1961 and left Philips for Barclay in 1962 and records « Le plat pays ». His triumph is universal: he performs in USSR, New York, etc. The audience enjoyed « Amsterdam » or the famous « Ne me quitte pas » (« If you go away »). In 1966, Brel stops singing and starts a new career in cinema. In 1967, Mort Schuman presents a musical comedy in USA: « Jacques Brel is alive and well and living in Paris ». In 1968, « Grand Jacques » creates with success the play « L’homme de la Mancha » with Dario Moreno. Suffering with a cancer, he moved to the Marquises islands and passed away October 9Th1998. David Bowie, Sting, Frank Sinatra and Nina Simone sang his songs. And his texts are studied in schools: « To love until it tears one apart. To love, even if it’s too much, even if it’s bad. To attempt, without strength, without armor, to reach the inaccessible star ». |
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