Enrico Macias

All Music Guide:

Enrico Macias drew on the traditions of his native North Africa to become one of the most popular and influential French recording artists of his generation -- a pioneering force in the development of what would eventually fall under the umbrella of world music, he remains a vital link to an Algerian culture decimated by colonial aggression and abuse. Born Gaston Ghrenassia in Constantine, Algeria, on December 11, 1938, he was the product of a Jewish family and at 15 made his professional debut as a guitarist with malouf master Cheikh Raymond Leyris' orchestra. Though something of a child prodigy, Ghrenassia later turned his back on music to begin a new career as a schoolteacher. In the meantime, the Front National de Libération continued its fight for Algerian independence from France, and in time the situation deteriorated into a state of guerrilla warfare -- on June 22, 1961, Cheikh Raymond was shot to death, and with wife Suzy (the bandleader's daughter), Ghrenassia fled to Paris, where he reignited his dormant music career playing contemporary interpretations of classic malouf melodies.

Dissatisfied with the end result of the experiment, he began writing original songs based on his own experiences as an Algerian refugee. After a series of little-noticed gigs across the cabaret circuit, in 1962 Ghrenassia was hired to headline the Drap d'Or, where he captured the attention of Pathé Marconi label exec Raymond Bernard. His debut single, "Adieu Mon Pays," written in part on the ship that delivered him to France, immediately vaulted the newly rechristened Enrico Macias to fame within the growing Algerian expatriate community, and at year's end he was featured on the television program Cinq Colonnes à la Une.

After touring in support of Paola and Billy Bridge in early 1963, Macias headlined dates in France, Lebanon, Greece, and Turkey, slowly cultivating an audience outside of the Algerian population. In 1965, he recorded a pair of mainstream pop hits, "Les Gens du Nord" and "Non Je N'ai Pas Oublié," and earned the Prix Vincent Scotto. Live performances in the Soviet Union and Japan followed, as did recording sessions in Spanish and Italian -- in 1968, Macias even headlined New York City's venerable Carnegie Hall, subsequently returning to North America for dates across the U.S. and Canada. Macias' songs were both personal and universal -- while on the one hand he upheld Arab-Andalucian musical traditions and penned lyrics exploring his Jewish faith, on the other hand his adroit fusion of indigenous musics past and present adhered to no genre restrictions, and he preached messages of peace and tolerance applicable regardless of the listener's religion or ethnicity.

With the 1976 LP Melisa, Macias enjoyed his greatest commercial and critical success to date, launching his classic song "Malheur à Celui Qui Blesse un Enfant." Two years later, Egyptian president Anwar Sadat defied his nation's ban on Jews to invite the singer to perform at the foot of the pyramids, and in late 1981 United Nations Secretary General Kurt Waldheim awarded him the title of "Singer of Peace." Sadat's October 6, 1981, assassination galvanized Macias to write a tribute song in response, and the resulting "Un Berger Vient de Tomber" remains one of his most beloved anthems. In 1986, he composed a different kind of tribute song via "Vivas les Bleus," the official theme of the French World Cup soccer squad.

French Prime Minister Laurent Fabius awarded Macias the Légion d'Honneur in the spring of 1985, and in the years to follow he continued touring some of the most troubled regions of the globe, playing dates in Israel and Korea in support of his 1988 international smash, "Zingarella." After completing the 1991 album Enrico, Macias announced his first extended hiatus from recording and touring, and the following spring co-starred in the theatrical drama Quelle Nuit. Music was again his focus in the years to come, however, and in 1995 he scored a novelty hit with "Et Johnny Chante l'Amour," a reggae-inspired tribute to French rock legend Johnny Hallyday. In 1997, United Nations General Secretary Kofi Annan nominated Macias for the title of "Ambassador at Large for Peace and Protection of Children." Two years later, he headlined the Festival of the Printemps de Bourges with a tribute to his own childhood mentor, Cheikh Raymond, reviving the Jewish-Arab music of Algeria's increasingly distant past.

In the spring of 2000, Macias generated widespread controversy when he announced plans to return to Algeria for a series of live performances -- though supported by Algerian legislators, the tour was ultimately scrapped because of security concerns, forcing the singer to channel his energies into the memoir, Mon Algérie, instead. Son Jean-Claude Ghrenassia produced his next LP, 2003's Oranges Amères, a return to the Middle Eastern-inspired atmospheres and rhythms of his earliest output. An extensive tour yielded the concert LP Live à l'Olympia 2003, and in late 2005 Macias starred in the French telefilm Monsieur Molina. A new album, La Vie Populaire, coincided with the project's spring 2006 broadcast premiere.

Wikipedia:

Gaston Ghrenassia, known by his stage name Enrico Macias, (born 11 December 1938 in Constantine, then in French Algeria) is an Algerian French Pied noir singer and musician. He is popular throughout the world and has travelled extensively for fifty years, from the early 1960s to the present.

Early years

He was born to a Jewish family in Constantine, Algeria, and played the guitar from childhood. His father, Sylvain Ghrenassia (1914–2004), was a violinist in an orchestra that played primarily maalouf, Andalo-Arabic music. Gaston started playing with the Cheikh Raymond Leyris Orchestra at 15.

He pursued a career as a school teacher, but continued practicing the guitar. In 1961, the Algerian War of Independence was raging, and the situation became untenable for the Jewish and European residents of Constantine. Of immense effect on Gaston Ghrenassia was the assassination in 1961 of his father-in-law and musician Cheikh Raymond Leyris by the National Liberation Front (FLN). Gaston left Algeria with his wife, Suzy, on 29 July 1961, eleven months before the end of the Algerian War of Independence, and went into exile in mainland France. He has not been permitted to return to Algeria ever since.He was a member of a militia as part of the french army during the Algerian War of Independence which committed crimes.

Career

First living in Argenteuil, he eventually moved to Paris, where he decided to pursue a career in music. At first he tried translating into French the maalouf numbers which he already knew. Later on, he developed a new French repertoire that he performed in cafés and cabarets. He remained, though, a popular interpreter of Arab-Andalusian music and Judeo-Arab songs in France.

He adopted the name Enrico Macias. Enrico comes from him being called "petit Enrico" when he joined Cheikh Raymond's orchestra. Macias comes through an error of the record label with which he eventually signed. When asked about his family name on the phone he said "Nassia" (Ghrenassia), but the receptionist misheard the name and wrote Macias. Thus the name Enrico Macias.

He made his first recording in 1962 after a meeting with Raymond Bernard of Pathé. The result was the recording of "Adieu mon pays" which he had composed for his beloved Algeria on the boat on his way to France. He appeared on French television and became an overnight sensation. This led to a first tour in 1963 as a second act with Paola and Billy Bridge. His daughter, Jocya, was also born that year.

In spring 1964, he performed in the first half of the Les Compagnons de la chanson show at the Paris Olympia and then undertook a successful tour of the Middle East, performing with great success in Lebanon, Greece and Turkey, where he still has a huge following today. In Turkey, many of his songs were translated and interpreted by Turkish artists. In 1965, he was awarded the Prix Vincent Scotto, and the following year he sang before 120,000 people at the Dinamo Stadium in Moscow, performing concerts in more than 40 other Soviet cities. He also toured Japan, where he was impressively successful. He recorded titles in Spanish and Italian and was popular in both countries.

His American debut, at a sold-out Carnegie Hall, took place on 17 February 1968. He continued to tour the United States, singing in Chicago, Dallas and Los Angeles. In Canada and Quebec, he was warmly welcomed as a francophone artist.

In 1971, he returned to the Paris Olympia, then went to the Royal Albert Hall in London, and back to Japan, Canada, Italy and Spain. A second US tour culminated in a concert at Carnegie Hall in 1972. In 1974, he gave ten shows at the Uris Theater on Broadway, and also at the Olympia for the sixth time since his debut.

He toured France and went twice to Israel in 1976 and 1978. He was invited to Egypt by the Egyptian President Anwar El Sadat to sing for peace. This came after Macias having been banned from Arab countries for many years, despite keeping his popularity with Arab and ethnic audiences in the Middle East and North Africa. In Egypt, he sang in front of 20,000 people at the foot of the Pyramids. After Sadat's assassination, he wrote a song dedicated to the late president entitled "Un berger vient de tomber".

In 1988, he had a big hit with "Zingarella", particularly in Israel and Turkey upon his tour in both countries in addition to South Korea.

In April 1992, he tried acting in a play adapted from English, called Quelle nuit. He also had a role as a local judge in the French TV film Monsieur Molina.

Enrico Macias lost much money through dubious financial services offered by the Luxembourg subsidiary of an Icelandic bank, now under investigation. He is currently trying to recover it (http://www.your-mortgage-calculator.com/blog/2011/10/mortgages-a-subsidiary-of-icelandic-bank-indicted/). This may be one of the reasons why he came out of retirement.

Albums and singles

Of great popularity were his 1960s Oriental-influenced songs like "J’ai quitté mon pays", "Les filles de mon pays", "L'Orientale", "Entre l'orient et l'occident" and tribute songs like "Le violon de mon père" (to his father), and "Mon chanteur préferé" (a tribute to his father-in-law Cheikh Raymond).

He was also popular with the French interpretation of "'Oh guitare, guitare" and the Spanish versions of "El Porompompero" and "Solenzara".

Big French hits include "Paris, tu m'as pris dans tes bras", "La femme de mon ami", "Non je n'ai pas oublié", "La France de mon enfance", "Les gens du nord" and "Les filles de mon pays".

He has sung in many languages including French, Italian, Spanish, Hebrew, Turkish, Greek, English, Armenian, Arabic and many of its dialects, and recently in Yiddish anduu Tamazight.

Achievements

Collaborations

He has collaborated with tens of artists, and his songs have been interpreted in many languages.

Controversies

His decision to try to play concerts in Algeria resulted in huge controversy. After the cancellation of a proposed tour in Algeria in 2000, he wrote a book Mon Algérie (Editions Plon in October 2001) marketed as a "veritable love story between one man and his homeland".

On 14 February 2007, he announced his support of Nicolas Sarkozy for the French presidential elections. He confirmed his political convictions of the political left, but said he could not support the Socialist candidate Ségolène Royal, although he would have supported her if Laurent Fabius or Dominique Strauss-Kahn had been the candidates.

He attempted again unsuccessfully to visit Algeria in November 2007 accompanying French president Nicolas Sarkozy, but was faced with fierce resistance from several Algerian organizations and individuals, including Algerian Prime Minister Abdelaziz Belkhadem, due to his support of Israel. He has never been permitted to return to Algeria since he left in 1961.

Personal life

Enrico Macias was married in 1961, while he was still in Algeria, to Suzy Leyris, the daughter of famous musician Cheikh Raymond Leyris and left with her to France after the assassination of his father-in-law. He was devastated by the death of his wife Suzy Macias on 23 December 2008. His 1993 album Suzy is dedicated to her.

His son, Jean-Claude Ghrenassia, is a well-known music producer as well.