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Biography
Use dmy dates|date=May 2011Infobox musical artist| name = Daniel Balavoine| image = Daniel Balavoine.jpg|| caption =| image_size =| background = solo_singer| birth_name =| alias =Bala| birth_date = birth date|1952|2|5|df=y|birth_place = Alençon , Orne, France| death_date = death date and age|df=y|1986|1|14|1952|2|5|death_place = Gourma-Rharous , Mali| instrument = Acoustic guitar Piano Synthesizer Fairlight CMI | genre = Pop (music)|Pop New wave (music)|New wave World music | occupation = Musician Singer-songwriter Producer| years_active = 1971–1986| label = Disques Vogue (1971–1973) Barclay Records – Universal Music Group (1975–1986)| associated_acts = Présence Starmania (musical)|Starmania | website = URL|www.dbalavoine.com| notable_instruments = Fairlight CMI Daniel Balavoine (5 February 1952 – 14 January 1986) was a List of French artists|French singer and songwriter. He was hugely popular in the French-speaking world, and inspired many singers in the 1980s, such as Jean-Jacques Goldman , and Michel Berger , his closest friend. He took part in French political life, and is known for a 1980 televised verbal confrontation with François Mitterrand .
In the French music-business, Balavoine earned his own spot with both his powerful voice, his wide range and his lyrics, which were full of sadness and revolt. He was emphatic, and his songs for the most part talked about despair, pain, and death. Hope was present as a theme as well. He sold more than 20 millions of records during his career.
Biography
Childhood
Daniel Balavoine was the youngest of a 6 kids family. He had 2 sisters and 3 brothers. His father, Emile, is an urban engineer and worked for the Reconstruction Ministry. His mother was an antics wholesaler. In 1959, his father is relocated in Algeria and Balavoine moved in the Pau, Pyrénées-Atlantiques|southern city of Pau and attended a boarding school which Balavoine clearly didn't appreciate the experience. When he was 11, he heard She Loves You from The Beatles which gave him music taste. http://www.dbalavoine.com/documents/docs/juke/index.php
In 1968, While he was attending a high school, like thousands of young people, he supported May 1968 in France|the nationwide strikes which occurred during the summer and imagined himself beginning a political career. But the end of the events deceived him and he began interesting in music and abandoned his scholarship.
Band Time
Fully decided to make a living thanks to music, he began to perform as ballroom singer in Pau, performing Bob Dylan songs. Then he joined some short-living city bands and begin to have some notoriety in town.
In 1971, he moved in Paris but it was a deception and came back in Pau. Soon afterwards, he answered to an audition in Paris to enter a hard rock band, Présence , whose singer just left. Another great future singer, Laurent Voulzy , was a challenger. Finally Balavoine was chosen and entered the studios. The band released an album which wasn't a big success. Despite of that, the band toured all around France.
In 1972, the band signed a contract with Warner Music Group and Balavoine left them.
the Hard times
In 1973, while he was working as a record dealer, Disques Vogue|The Vogue studios , which produced Présence, recalled him and offered him to begin a solo career. His first Vogue record, Viens Vite was released but suffered poor sales. Balavoine became then a background vocalist alongside with his brother, Guy. Soon afterwards, they starred a pop Musical theatre|Musical , La Révolution Française (rock opera)|La Révolution Française .
In 1974, Patrick Juvet , one of the biggest performer in France during that time, offered him to play as a first part for his next tour. Balavoine wrote him a song, ''Couleurs d'Automne'', which appeared on Juvet's new album who let him perform it.
While attending a show, Léo Missir , vice-president of Barclay Records , was impressed by Balavoine's aura and signed him immediately for 3 years which lasted far more longer. His first record, De Vous à Elle en Passant par Moi , was released in 1975 but again scored a deceptive sales record.
During the recording, he met Catherine Ferry (singer)|Catherine Ferry , who was chosen as the French candidate in the next Eurovision Song Contest which will take place in Holland. Ferry reached the second place with Balavoine and his brother as backing vocal. This great result allow Balavoine and Ferry to develop a strong friendship each other. Balavoine will write most of her songs following her success.
In 1977, a second record is released, Les Aventures de Simon et Gunther but again it scored a low success and Eddie Barclay began getting impatient.
Success Time
Starmania
In 1978, Michel Berger , who just ended Starmania (musical)|Starmania 's writing, is still looking for the singer who will portray Johnny Rockfort . Watching the TV, he was impressed by Balavoine, who sang the only title of his last album who scored a success. Balavoine was immediately hired and a strong brotherhood relationship began between the 2 men.
A few months later, the Musical hit a phenomenal success, mostly all of its songs were ranked. Balavoine performed 3 of them: Quand on arrive en ville , Banlieue Nord and especially '' SOS D'un terrien en detresse '', which was written only for Balavoine's voice. The last song was a hit success, nationwide and worldwide. http://www.youtube.com/watch? NR=1& feature=fvwp& v=6-IR_TVFihkPeter Kingsbery , main singer of the American band Cock Robin (band)|Cock Robin , wrote the English version of the song: Only the Very Best (Tycoon)| Only the Very Best , which was also a big hit in France. http://www.youtube.com/watch? v=KyunavoX-KY
Balavoine's solo career became successful too with the release of his third album, Le Chanteur . The main title song which is talking about the unstoppable rise and fall of a young singer, http://www.youtube.com/watch? v=kgSqrTVBETw was a huge commercial success with one million units sold. The album scored 800,000 sales.
In parallel, Balavoine continued touring with Starmania, becoming one of its most famous face. Between April and May 1979, the musical is performed at Palais des congrès de Paris|Palais des congrès in Paris, in front of 100,000 spectators increasing Balavoine's popularity.
In 1979, he released his fourth album, Face Amour/Face amère . Despite of his medium success, its sales were lower than the previous one. ''Me laisse pas m'en aller and Ces petit riens were the most famous song of the record. Even though, this last opus allowed him to tour within France in solo for the first time, especially in Olympia (Paris)|Olympia during 3 days.
Un Autre Monde
In 1980, Balavoine came back with his fifht studio album, Un Autre Monde . This record was particularly successful, 3 songs hitting a huge commercial score: Mon Fils, Ma Bataille with 543,000 units sold, Je ne suis pas un Heros , http://www.youtube.com/watch? v=lZSWk0lxtpQ originally written for Johnny Hallyday who will insert it in his set list as a tribute and ''La vie ne m'apprend rien .
Balavoine went on tour again and came back to the Olympia for a 4 days sold out shows which gave birth to his first live album, Daniel Balavoine en Concert in November 1981.
Vendeur de Larmes
During winter 1981, Balavoine went to Ibiza , Spain to write his sixth album. Balavoine decided to change radically his music style, more rocky and with electronic effects. In April 1982, Vendeur de Larmes becomes available with another hits song like Vivre ou Survivre , http://www.youtube.com/watch? v=Slp2kpZwJy4& feature=related ''Dieu que l'Amour est triste and Soulève-moi . http://www.youtube.com/watch? v=rij2t5s4peU& feature=relmfu http://archive.wikiwix.com/cache/? url= http://danielb4ever.skyrock.com/2.html& title=Article%20sur%20Vendeurs%20de%20larmes%2C%20Salut%2012%20mai%201982
The Album hits a huge success becoming Diamond album in few months. The following tour was also very popular, challenging the best performances of the time. During 4 days, Balavoine performed in Palais des Sports (Paris)|Palais des Sports . All his shows were sold-out and left an unforgettable souvenir to the audience.
International Time
''Loin des yeux de l'Occident
In 1983, Bala participated in his first Paris-Dakar Rally . Victim of a breaking-down during the first run, he followes the rest of the race as a spectator and discovers Africa. He was deeply in shock of what he saw: " when, arriving in a small village, we saw a kid looking for flies to eat them, we have nothing more to say ". After that, he went to Scotland in order to write his seventh album. Very inspired by his African experience, he released, in October 1983, ''Loin des Yeux de L'Occident ( Far Away of Occident Sight ). According to music specialists, this last record is the most engaged one of the artist. He talks about Third World women in " Pour la Femme veuve qui s'éveille ( For the Widow who is waking up ), Torture in " Frappe avec la tête ( Strike with the head ), drugs in Poisson dans la cage and South American dictatorships in Revolucion .
The melody, very close of Peter Gabriel 's one, mixes Electronic music (electrical guitar, keyboards etc.) with World music ambient with African drums.
During the year, he is also starring in the Musical Abbacadabra , alongside with ABBA brunette Frida Lyngstad . They will performed the song Belle together.
When 1983 Beirut barracks bombing|a bombing in Beirut happened, Balavoine, whose brother, Yves, was stationed, creates a polemic by insulting the Veteran|French Veterans and the government who were pushing to the war. Two weeks later, he makes a public apology for the disorder he created.
In 1984, Balavoine goes again on the road for a full year tour across France. For this new tour, Balavoine introduced new technologies like Vari-Lite lights and High frequency|HF tech . Balavoine looked for the perfect sound and the perfect ambient rather than the set which was furnished very poorly. All his songs music were rewritten in a very pronounced Rock versions.
In July, Balavoine becomes for the first time a father at the age of 31. Very touched and blessed by the event, he wrote a brand new song, ''Dieu& #33; Que c'est beau! and included it in his tour set list.
He also wrote a full album for his friend Catherine Ferry using for the first time his Fairlight synthesizer he bought at high price.
''Sauver l'amour
In 1985, all the music stars are more and more involved in charities and humanitarian events. Balavoine was invited to the Live Aid but didn't have any chance to perform. http://archive.wikiwix.com/cache/? url= http://danielb4ever.skyrock.com/47.html& title=Balavoine%20parle%20du%20Live%20Aid
So the French created their own event, The Singers Without Borders , which wasn't a big success mostly because of the expensive price. Nevertheless, the concert album sold well.
During the Summer, Bala come back in Scotland for his eighth and most successful record: Sauver l'amour (album)|Sauver l'amour The French artist innovates again using his Fairlight and especially it's the first album released on Compact Disc . The Fairlight allows Balavoine to insert a lot of electronic effects and sound never heard before. ''Sauvez l'amour'' is the best demonstration of Balavoine's talent. http://archive.wikiwix.com/cache/? url= http://danielb4ever.skyrock.com/1.html& title=%C3%89tude%20de%20Sauver%20l'amour%20dans%20le%20magazine%20Paroles%20et%20musiques%20de%20janvier%201987
Mostly all the songs of the album became hits: L'Aziza in honor of his Jewish Moroccan wife and mother of his son, Corine; the main title song of the album, Sauver l'amour an hymn to love; Tous les Cris, les SOS , a song about about despair, Petit Homme mort au Combat which main theme is Child soldiers , Aimer est plus fort que d'être aimé which was the last single released before Balavoine's tragic death.
This album received a huge commercial success, the best one of Daniel Balavoine: 1,240,000 records sold and 1,580,000 singles sold. http://archive.wikiwix.com/cache/? url= http://infodisc.fr/CDCertif_Album.php? debut=50& title=Vente%20des%20albums%20sur%20InfoDisc
Daniel Balavoine received, as posthumous title, the Victoires de la Musique|Victoire de la Musique Album of the Year Award in 1986 for ''Sauvez L'amour
Death
In 1986, Daniel Balavoine was chosen to lead a raise funding for building water wells in Africa. In order to supervise it, he was invited by Thierry Sabine , founder and director of the Paris-Dakar Rally|Paris-Dakar Rally Raid .
On January 14, 1986, Balavoine, Sabine, a female reporter and her cameraman got aboard Sabine Chopper to referee a football match. In 7pm, the helicopter suffered a desert tempest and landed. But a few minutes later, the chopper took off again and few minutes later disintegrated itself killing all the passengers.
The news of Sabine and Balavoine deaths plunged the country in deep grief and the accident remains inexplicable still nowadays. Balavoine was buried in Biarritz http://archive.wikiwix.com/cache/? url= http://www.ina.fr/archivespourtous/index.php? jour=20%26mois=01%26annee=1986%26submit=valider+%26vue=jn& title=Journal%20t%C3%A9l%C3%A9vis%C3%A9%20d'Antenne%202%20du%2020%2F01%2F86
A politically and humanitarian involved singer
Since 1968, Balavoine was very interesting by the French political life. During the strikes in May, he thought firstly making politic. But the end of the movement and Charles de Gaulle|General de Gaulle come-back deceived him and he turned his mind to music.
Despite of it, his political interest did not left him. In 1980, he confronted François Mitterrand , who was at this time the National Secretary of Socialist Party (France)|Socialist Party and French presidential election, 1981|French presidential bid candidate , during a France 2 Evening News broadcasting program. During a 7 minute spontaneous speech,an angry Balavoine expressed what he felt about the political care of Youth in France, in fact that the Youth Community is completely ignored by the political world who is only interested by their own stuff, leaving all the room speechless. http://www.ina.fr/economie-et-societe/vie-sociale/video/I00000219/colere-de-daniel-balavoine-face-a-francois-mitterrand.fr.html After this famous intervention, Balavoine became, in the eyes of France, the perfect Spoke Person for a French Youth which wants political answers about their life problems.
He supported his Friend Coluche in his presidential bid. When Coluche finally abandoned, François Mitterrand, who was still impressed by the young artist's aura, asks him to join his campaign team. Balavoine performed during the first meetings but finally retires, feeling he became a political recuperation object.
More and More, he turns his mind toward Humanitarian work, especially about Africa. A few months before his tragical death, he joined a NGO , called Action Ecole, a French charity, supported by Bob Geldof|Sir Bob Geldof who creates Students communities to raise funds for Africa. He was charged to manage water wells building in the Sahel . This is while supervising it that he died tragically in the crash of Sabine's Ecureuil in Mali.
Balavoine was also appointed first Godfather of Les Restos du Cœur , founded by Coluche and one of the biggest Representative of SOS Racisme whose president Harlem Désir awarded him for l'Aziza as Best song against Racism.
Balavoine's legacy
The French public look proudly upon songs like "Vivre ou survivre" (1982), "Dieu que c'est beau" (1984), " L'Aziza ", " Sauver l'amour ", "Aimer est plus fort que d'être aimé", and "Tous les cris, les SOS" (1985), comparing Balavoine favourably to English language groups like Eurythmics , Queen (band)|Queen and Depeche Mode .
Balavoine’s songs have been interpreted by many artists, for example Catherine Ferry (singer)|Catherine Ferry for whom he wrote near 20 songs, Jeanne Mas, Liane Foly , Anni-Frid Lyngstad|Frida Lyngstad , Lena Ka, Johnny Hallyday , Pascal Obispo , Patrick Fiori , Florent Pagny , Grégory Lemarchal , as well as Marie Denise Pelletier (from Quebec ) who had an enormous success with her own rendition of the song " Tous les cris, les SOS " in 1987.
In 1986, Belgian francophone artist Lara Fabian released her first single, "L'Aziza est en pleurs" (composed by Marc Lercs ) in honour of Balavoine.
In 2006, to mark the 20th anniversary of the singer's death, Barclay Records released his complete recorded works as a boxed set entitled " Balavoine sans frontières ".
Discography
Studio albums
De vous à elle en passant par moi (1975)
Les aventures de Simon et Gunther... Stein (1977)
Le chanteur (1978)
Face amour / Face amère (1979)
Un autre monde (1980)
Vendeurs de larmes (1982)
'' Loin des yeux de l'Occident (1983)
''Sauver l'amour (1985)
Live albums
Sur scène (1981)
Au Palais des Sports (1984)
Compilations
Ses 7 premières compositions (1986)
''L'essentiel (1999)
Sans frontières (2005) (a 12-CD box set containing all of his recorded works, studio and live)
Other projects
Starmania (1978) (sings 5 songs)
Chrysalide, of Patrick Juvet (1974)
Patrick Juvet vous raconte son rêve (1973)
Catherine Ferry "Vivre avec la musique" - producer and composer (1984) WEA
Abbacadabra (1983) – a children's musical based on songs of Swedish group ABBA
Filmography
Alors... Heureux ? (1980)
''Qu'est-ce qui fait craquer les filles... (1982)
External links
http://www.associationdanielbalavoine.org/ Official website of the association Daniel Balavoine
http://www.rfimusique.com/siteen/biographie/biographie_6068.asp Biography at Radio France Internationale (in English)
Reference
Reflist Persondata | NAME =Balovoine, Daniel | ALTERNATIVE NAMES = | SHORT DESCRIPTION = | DATE OF BIRTH =5 February 1952 | PLACE OF BIRTH = Alençon , Orne, France | DATE OF DEATH =14 January 1986 | PLACE OF DEATH = Gourma-Rharous , Mali DEFAULTSORT:Balovoine, Daniel Category:1952 births Category:1986 deaths Category:People from Alençon Category:French pop singers Category:French male singers Category:French singer-songwriters Category:Victims of helicopter accidents or incidents Category:Victims of aviation accidents or incidents in Mali Category:Sport deaths in Mali Category:Dakar Rally drivers
