Michel Sardou


Michel Charles Sardou is a French singer, songwriter and occasional actor.
Sardou is known not only for his love songs, but also for songs dealing with various social and political issues, such as the rights of women in Islamic countries, clerical celibacy, colonialism or the death penalty. Another sometimes controversial theme found in some of his songs is his respect and support for the culture and foreign policies of the United States of America. He has been accused of being a racist due to his 1976 song "Le temps des colonies", in which a former colonial soldier proudly tells his memories of colonialism, but Sardou has always claimed the song was sarcastic. His 1981 single "Les lacs du Connemara" was an international hit. A number of his hit songs were written in collaboration with Jacques Revaux and Pierre Delanoë, a few others with Italian singer Toto Cutugno.
Sardou sold out eighteen consecutive dates at Palais Omnisports de Paris-Bercy in 2001, while his 2004 album Du plaisir went straight to the number one spot on the French album charts. With a recording career of fifty years, Sardou has released 25 studio albums, 18 live albums and has recorded more than 350 songs and has sold more than 100 million records. Currently he is considered as one of the most popular artists in the Francophone world and one of the most lucrative, both in sales and in his shows.

Biography

Childhood

Michel Sardou was born on 26 January 1947 in Paris. His father, Fernand Sardou, was a singer and an actor while his mother, Jackie Sardou was an actress. His paternal grandfather, Valentin Sardou, was a comedian in Marseille, while his grandmother was a singer.
Sardou left school at 17.

Career

The early stages (1965–1970)

Sardou began working as a waiter in his father's cabaret in Montmartre. He eventually met Michel Fugain and auditioned for Eddie Barclay. In 1965, Sardou began his recording career with "Le madras", co-written with Michel Fugain and Patrice Laffont.
In 1967, his career really picked up, thanks to censorship: while France left NATO's military command and the Vietnam War was causing anti-American sentiment in France, Sardou released "Les Ricains", a song which stated the debt of gratitude towards the USA for the liberation of France. Charles de Gaulle did not like the song and he advised against its broadcast on state radio and television. This gave the singer a new notoriety, and the song let him lay the foundations for his future artistic style. However, from 1967 to 1970, he still found it difficult to have big hits.
In view of the mitigated success of his singles, in 1969, Eddie Barclay decided to terminate his contract, estimating that Sardou was not cut out to be a singer. So, he founded the record label Tréma, which would produce his records, with his friends Jacques Revaux and Régis Talar, a French record producer.

Success and controversies (1970–1980)

He really met true success in 1970, when he released his first studio album, J'habite en France. Three songs extracted from this work became hits : "J'habite en France", "Et mourir de plaisir" but mainly "Les bals populaires", which reached the top of the French chart.
From this album, the hits would be uninterrupted throughout the 1970s. The songs "Le rire du sergent" , "Le surveillant général" found favour with the public. But his success was sealed in 1973 with the album La maladie d'amour. Its title track "La maladie d'amour", "Les vieux mariés" and "Les villes de solitude" would eventually become great successes. However, this last song triggered a controversy as Sardou takes the role of a man who, tired of his monotonous daily routine, drunkenly expresses his brutal fantasies, but never acts on them. The feminist organisation MLF] objected.
The controversies reached their peak in 1976, with the album La vieille. The first single from it, "Le France", released on November 1975, was a message of indignation addressed to the President of France Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, who had just sold the ocean liner SS France. The controversial song was welcomed by the trade unions and the Communist Party even though Sardou was seen, because of several other songs, as an archetypal reactionary singer. Even after the album was a real triumph, other extracts, like "J'accuse'" or "Le temps des colonies" are about a singer who defends old conservative values. He was even accused of being a racist and an apologist for colonialism, but he has always insisted that the song is written in character rather than being an expression of his own views. The song "Je suis pour..." puts Sardou in the role of a man in favour of the death penalty because his own son has been killed. In the wake of this, and other political positions expressed by him, Anti-Sardou campaigns were started; their demonstrations regularly disrupted the singer's tours, although other left-wingers felt that Sardou was entitled to his freedom of speech.
The next year, in 1977, Sardou moved away from politics. His next album, La java de Broadway, contained famous songs, such as "La java de Broadway", "Dix ans plus tôt" and a revival of the Claude François hit "Comme d'habitude". The album was a huge success, exactly like the next Je vole, which gave him one of his biggest hits, "En chantant", written together with the Italian singer Toto Cutugno.

A legend in motion (1981–2001)

The 1980s began under good omens for the singer, with the album Les lacs du Connemara from which came two songs considered important to the entire canon of French popular music: "Les lacs du Connemara" and "Être une femme".
Throughout the decade, Sardou had a lot of success : "Afrique adieu" in 1982, "Il était là" in 1982, "Rouge" in 1984, "Chanteur de jazz" in 1985, "La même eau qui coule" in 1988... because his sales did not slow down, whereas a lot of his contemporaries had been forgotten during the disco boom.
However he didn't shy away from controversial songs, and even had success with several of them : "Vladimir Ilitch", in 1983, which both pays tribute to the ideas of Lenin and denounces the drift of the Soviet Union away from them; "Les deux écoles", in 1984, which recalls the opposition between the free school and the private school with a defence of private schools ; "Musulmanes", in 1986, which casts a pessimistic and bitter look at the rights of women in Islamic countries but which also pays a tribute to Arabic culture.
At the end of the 1980s, Sardou received the recognition of his peers by being awarded a Music Victory for "Musulmanes" as the best song of the year.
In the 1990s, the run of hit singles dried up, even if his four albums had very good sales. Sardou chose, for his shows in Paris, at the Palais Omnisports de Paris-Bercy in 1989, 1991, 1993, 1998 and 2001, and managed to fill this small stadium for a total of 88 times after his tour in 2001, each time with more than spectators. He also holds the record of attendances and performances for this stadium.
He received, in 1990 and in 1999, the Music Victory for the biggest number of spectators gathered at the end of a tour
After the album Français and its promotional tour, Sardou announced his retirement from singing.

The renewal (2004–2013)

In 2004, Sardou signed a contract with the record label Universal Music France for a new album entitled Du plaisir, he participated in the French television show Star Academy and he organised an international tour in 2004 and 2005, visiting France, Belgium, Switzerland and Canada.
On 13 November 2006, the double album Hors format was released. This album includes twenty-three new songs, one of which is a duet with Chimène Badi, "Le chant des hommes". "Hors Format" has reached copies sold and is a double platinum. In 2007, he started another tour, visiting venues like the Olympia and the Zénith de Paris. "Le Blues Black Brothers" Released on: 2004-01-01
He released the album Être une femme on 30 August 2010. Tracks include an electronic style remix by the DJ Laurent Wolf of his own 1980s hit "Être une femme", and a duet with Céline Dion, "Voler". The subsequent tour meets with further success.
Les grands moments, a compilation album of his greatest hits, was released 22 October 2012. In 2012 and 2013 Sardou gave a show of the same name, showcasing his material all the way back to the mid-1960s. The show was staged at the Palais Omnisports de Paris-Bercy for three dates in December 2012 and five dates at the Olympia in June 2013. But medical issues forced Sardou to cancel the twelve last dates.
In September 2014, he began playing the lead role in a play written especially for him by Éric-Emmanuel Schmitt, Si on recommençait ?.
Several of Sardou's songs also feature prominently in the French comedy film "La famille Bélier", released in 2014.

Personal life

Sardou married Françoise Pettré, a dancer, in 1965. They have two daughters : Sandrine and Cynthia. They divorced in 1977. He married his second wife, Elizabeth Haas, called "Babette", in October 1977. They have two sons : Romain, writer and Davy, actor. They divorced in June 1999. On 11 October 1999, married Anne-Marie Périer, the daughter of the actor François Périer and the sister of the photographer Jean-Marie Périer. She is the former editor-in-chief of Elle magazine. They were married in Neuilly-sur-Seine by then-mayor Nicolas Sarkozy.

Discography

Albums

Emblematic songs

Other activities

Theatre manager

Sardou was the owner of the Théâtre de la Porte Saint-Martin in Paris from 2001 to 2003.

Theatre actor