Serge Gainsbourg was a French singer-songwriter, actor, composer, and director. Regarded as one of the most important figures in French pop, he was renowned for often provocative releases which caused uproar in France, dividing public opinion. His artistic output ranged from his early work in jazz, chanson, and yé-yé to later efforts in rock, zouk, funk, reggae, and electronica. Gainsbourg's varied musical style and individuality make him difficult to categorise, although his legacy has been firmly established and he is often regarded as one of the world's most influential popular musicians.
Arnold Charles Ernest Hintjens, better known by his stage name Arno, was a Belgian singer. He was the frontman of TC Matic, one of the best-known Belgian bands of the 1980s. After the band split in 1986 he enjoyed a solo career.
French rock is a form of rock music produced in France, primarily with lyrics in the French language.
Urban Dance Squad was a Dutch rap rock band formed after what was originally intended as a one-time jam-session at a festival in Utrecht on December 20, 1986. The band consisted of a guitarist, bassist, drummer, rapper, and DJ. Urban Dance Squad was one of the most successful Dutch bands of the nineties, releasing five studio albums.
Alain Bashung was a French singer, songwriter and actor. Credited with reviving the French chanson in "a time of French musical turmoil", he is often regarded in his home country as the most important French rock musician after Serge Gainsbourg. He rose to prominence in the early 1980s with hit songs such as "Gaby oh Gaby" and "Vertige de l'amour", and later had a string of hit records from the 1990s onward, such as "Osez Joséphine", "Ma petite entreprise" and "La nuit je mens". He has had an influence on many later French artists, and is the most awarded artist in the Victoires de la Musique history with 12 victories obtained throughout his career.
Des Visages des Figures is an album by French rock band Noir Désir. It was released in France and other European countries on 11 September 2001. It turned out to be the band's last studio effort. Noir Désir was officially disbanded in November 2010.
French pop music is pop music sung in the French language. It is usually performed by singers from France, Canada, Belgium, Switzerland, or any of the other francophone areas of the world. The target audience is the francophone market, which is considerably smaller than and largely independent from the mainstream anglophone market.
French popular music is a music of France belonging to any of a number of musical styles that are accessible to the general public and mostly distributed commercially. It stands in contrast to French classical music, which historically was the music of elites or the upper strata of society. It also differs from traditional French folk music which was shared non-commercially. It is sometimes abbreviated to French pop music; however, French pop music is more often used for a narrower branch of popular music.
The Grand Prix du Disque for French Song is one of a number of prizes awarded by L'Académie Charles Cros as part of the yearly Grand Prix du Disque. The following is a partial list of winners :
The Mother and the Whore is a 1973 French film directed by Jean Eustache and starring Jean-Pierre Léaud, Bernadette Lafont and Françoise Lebrun. An examination of the relationships between three characters in a love triangle, it was Eustache's first feature film and is considered his masterpiece. Eustache wrote the screenplay drawing inspiration from his own relationships, and shot the film from May to July 1972.
François Valéry is a French singer-songwriter and composer. He is married to Nicole Calfan and Michael Calfan is his son.
Mark Ritsema is a singer, guitarist, songwriter, journalist and writer from the Netherlands. During the eighties and nineties he fronted cult bands Spasmodique and Cobraz and currently he plays with Raskolnikov. He also performs as the solo artist Nightporter and plays guitar for John Sinclair, Vera and Mecano.
Caroline Loeb is a French actress, radio host, singer, and director. In 1986, she co-wrote and recorded the hit single "C'est la ouate".
Jean Pierre "Matelo" Ferret was a French musette and gypsy jazz guitarist and composer. He was an associate of Django Reinhardt and the youngest brother of guitarists Baro and Sarane Ferret. He recorded with his own sextet in Paris in the 1940s and continued performing there, with occasional recording sessions, until his death in 1989. He was noted for a musical style that incorporated Russian and Hungarian influences and lived long enough to see a resurgence of interest in gypsy jazz in which he was recognised as one of the great surviving players of the genre. Two of his sons, Boulou and Elios Ferré, continue to play a more modern and individualistic form of gypsy jazz-based guitar music in Paris.
Francesca Solleville is a French singer. She lives in Malakoff (Hauts-de-Seine). She is the granddaughter of the founder of the Italian League for the Rights of Man. She is married to the painter Louis Loyzeau de Grandmaison.
L'Imprudence(The Imprudence) is the eleventh studio album by French singer-songwriter Alain Bashung, issued in October 2002 on Barclay Records.
Jean-Marie Aerts was a Belgian guitarist and producer, best known as the guitar player for TC Matic. Aerts was a session musician who had worked with Kaz Lux, Raymond van het Groenewoud, and Plastic Bertrand when he joined Arno Hintjens in TC Matic in 1980, replacing Paul Decoutere. He also produced the band's first three albums; during his tenure with the band he produced other artists' albums as well, including Luc van Acker's KAZ (1982) and Arbeid Adelt!'s ''Jonge Helden (1983). After TC Matic broke up he continued as a producer, working with artists including DJ DNA, Jo Lemaire, and the Urban Dance Squad, for whom he produced the groundbreaking debut album Mental Floss for the Globe. Aerts died on 20 April 2024, at the age of 72.
"Putain Putain" is a 1983 song by Belgian rock group TC Matic. It was written by Arno Hintjens and Jean-Marie Aerts. Released on the band's album Choco (1983), it was released as a single, with "Living On My Instinct" as the B-side. At the time, "Putain Putain" was a minor club hit in Belgium and France. It remains one of the band's biggest hits.
Renée Claude was a Canadian actress and singer who was known as an interpretive singer, particularly of songs by Stéphane Venne, Michel Conte, Georges Brassens and Léo Ferré.
"Oh La La La" is a 1981 song by Belgian rock band TC Matic. Written by Arno Hintjens, Ferre Baelen and Rudy Cloet, it appeared on their album TC Matic (1981) and was also released as a single, with "Dancing Thoughts" as the B-side. "Oh La La La" became a huge club hit, concert favorite and was always considered both the band as well as Arno Hintjens' signature song.
