The family of Jacques Higelin announced the death of the famous singer at the age of 77 years. We owe him famous titles like “Tombé du ciel” and “Poil dans la main”.
The French song loses one of its greatest figures. Jacques Higelin died at the age of 77 , announced this Friday, April 6 his family to AFP.
Born in 1940 in Brou-sur-Chantereine in Seine-et-Marne , he made his mark on the French scene in the 70’s and 80’s. Father of three children artists, the singer Arthur H, the singer Izia Higelin, and the Director Kên Higelin, he leaves behind twenty albums and some unforgettable songs, among them “Tombé du ciel”.
Rants and kicks
Shaggy hair, lanky figure, bubbling and poetic verb, he was an indefatigable stage man.
Endearing as a teenager, this “enchanter”, author, composer and performer, gathered a public of faithful around his songs and his concerts, during which he improvised tirelessly, went from piano to accordion or the guitar and apostrophait the spectator.
Man of riots and heart-throbs, always revolted, Higelin evokes in some of his songs society, undocumented or economic difficulties, and is committed to several times alongside the homeless.
Alternating aerial ballads, energetic rock and lyrical flights, juggling lyrics with a love of words, Jacques Higelin has, over the years, signed some of the greatest hits of the French song as “Champagne”, but also “Pars” or “Tête en l’air”.
Actor in about thirty films
But it’s like comedian that he starts his career. In the early 1960s, he enrolled at Cours Simon. He debuted at the theater in 1959 with “Bon week-end, Monsieur Bennett”, directed by Michel Vitold, and also starts the cinema with “Le bonheur est pour demain” of Henri Fabiani (1961), “Bébert et l’Omnibus” by Yves Robert (1963) or “Elle court, elle court, la banlieue” by Gérard Pirès (1972).
He will play a total of thirty films.
His destiny changed with a decisive double encounter in the mid-1960s, that of the musicians Areski and Brigitte Fontaine, with whom he performed as a trio under the leadership of Pierre Barouh. This is the time of his debut in song, communities and experiences.
Duet with Brigitte Fontaine
In 1965, he released the album “Douze chansons d’avant le déluge,” recorded duet with Brigitte Fontaine.
In 1974, he began a rock shift, with the album “BBH 75”. A child of Charles Trenet and the Rolling Stones, he is one of the first singers to attempt a synthesis between rock and song, two genres that are a priori antagonistic.
He then goes out “Irradié” (1975), “Alertez les bébés” (1976) and “No man’s land” (1978). He became a popular rock singer, and in 1979 he had a great success with the album “Champagne pour tout le monde” and his twin “Caviar pour les autres… .
Tribute to Trenet
In 1988, he won again the public membership with the album “Tombé du ciel”, for which he surrounded himself with musicians like Didier Lockwood and William Sheller. The album, which sells more than 300,000 copies, is his greatest success.
Then follows “Aux héros de la voltige” (1994) and “Paradis païenn” (1998), which marks his reunion with Areski. In 2005, he takes songs from Charles Trenet during a tour, heir crazy and lunar “crazy singing”.
In 2006, after eight years without an album of original songs, he released “Amor Doloroso”, followed by “Coup de Foudre” in 2010. These albums, for which he works with the former leader of Kat Onoma, Rodolphe Burger, are both hailed by critics.
After “Beau Repaire” published in 2013, this poet with a broken voice, father of three children also artists, Ken, director and comedian, Arthur H, singer and musician and the actress and singer Izïa released his 20th and last album, “Higelin 75 “, in the autumn of 2016.
More free than ever on this opus, the singer installed in Pantin, at the gates of Paris, allows himself a piece-final river of more than … 21 minutes and, in “J’fume”, claims to continue to “smoke” while waiting ” let the gravedigger dig a grave for me at Père-Lachaise “and” the time stops and the sky falls on my head “.
