Renaud

All Music Guide:

French folk-rock icon Renaud was the poet laureate of the urban Paris experience, illuminating the dark underbelly of the City of Light via the street-smart, politically charged slang later embraced by the hip-hop generation. Despite his subject matter, Renaud Séchan was himself the product of a middle-class background. Born in Paris' 14th arrondissement on May 11, 1952, he was one of six children born to a teacher who moonlighted writing detective thrillers. A poor student with a decided anti-authority streak, Renaud was passionate about politics from an early age, and was an active participant in the landmark student revolts of May 1968. During a month-long student sit-in at Sorbonne University, he began writing his first original songs, and after quitting school worked a series of blue-collar jobs while pursuing a career as an actor. After a stint with a theatrical troupe including future stars Coluche and Miou Miou, Renaud worked in a Paris bookstore, on occasion busking for spare change from passers-by. One day producer Paul Lederman caught him and an accordionist friend playing on a Paris street corner and invited them to perform at the CafConc, a new café and theater he was opening on the Champs Elysées. When the friend was called to serve in the military, Renaud took the stage as a solo act, performing his now-extensive repertoire of original political anthems including "Hexagone" and "Camarade Bourgeois." The CafConc made him something of a cause célèbre in Paris leftist circles, and in 1975 he issued his debut LP, Amoureux de Paname, a record steeped in the disillusionment and angst of the twentysomething generation.

Songs like "Société Tu M'auras Pas" enshrined Renaud as the voice of Paname (Parisian argot for the city's suburbs), but despite his initial flush of success he still dreamed of pursuing a career in drama, spending virtually all of 1977 co-starring in Martin Lamotte's play Le Secret de Zonga. His sophomore LP, Laisse Béton, finally hit retail in 1978, and its title cut topped the French pop charts, vaulting Renaud to national stardom and popularizing "Verlan," the coded French slang sourced for its lyrics. For the 1979 follow-up, Ma Gonzesse, Renaud explored more personal and intimate themes than on previous efforts. The record proved another massive success, culminating in a sold-out, weeklong live stint at Paris' famed Théâtre de l'Hôtel de Ville. Buoyed by the hits "Dans Mon HLM" and "Les Aventures de Gérard Lambert," 1980's Marche à l'Ombre was another blockbuster, and Renaud spent the entire month of March headlining Paris' Bobino Theatre, a residency that yielded two separate concert LPs, Live à Bobino and Le P'tit Bal du Samedi Soir. Despite his popularity, the singer was not without his critics, who questioned what right a multi-millionaire superstar on the cusp of age 30 had writing and singing songs articulating themes of urban despair, youthful rebellion, and socioeconomic struggle. Renaud responded by turning inward, populating 1981's Le Retour de Gérard Lambert with sharply evoked narratives spanning the spectrum of human behavior and emotion. The album also included a much-acclaimed anti-drug anthem, "La Blanche."

Renaud continued his maturation with 1983's Dès Que le Vent Soufflera. His most tender, introspective record to date, its sound largely abandoned his signature folk-rock approach for a sound inspired by mainstream French pop, a formula that generated his best-selling album to date. In 1985 Renaud founded the Ethiopian famine charity organization Chanteurs Pour l'Ethiopie, and with friend Franck Langolff composed the all-star benefit single of the same name, selling more than a million records. That same year he issued the solo LP Mistral Gagnant, recorded in the U.S. with producer Jean-Philippe Goude. The June 1986 motorcycle accident that claimed the life of his longtime friend, the celebrated anti-establishment comedian Coluche, was the inspiration behind the 1988 album Putain de Camion. While a commercial letdown, the record was nevertheless widely acclaimed by the press and earned Renaud the Ville de Paris prize, the Ministère de la Culture Prize, and the SACEM Award. Politics returned to the forefront for 1991's Marchand de Cailloux, an album inspired by the Gulf War and the ongoing strife in Northern Ireland. That same year, Renaud co-starred in filmmaker Claude Berri's epic adaptation of the Emile Zola novel Germinal, and while filming in northern France he began work on Cante el'Nord, a 1993 album spotlighting the traditional music of the region. By contrast, Marseille was the inspiration behind 1995's A la Bell de Mai, a collection of original songs that also paid tribute to enduring rebel icons including Che Guevara, Emiliano Zapata, and Pancho Villa.

With 1996's Renaud Chante Brassens, Renaud paid tribute to his spiritual antecedent George Brassens, covering 23 of the late French icon's songs and dubbing Brassens "a poet-rebel against all institutions." Although the record was warmly received, Renaud's life soon went into free fall. He separated from his wife of close to two decades and suffered a nervous breakdown, at the same time battling alcohol abuse. He toured Germany and Ireland in 1997, but otherwise disappeared from the live circuit until late 1999, touring small concert venues throughout France in the company of pianist Alain Lantry and guitarist Jean-Pierre Buccolo. Originally scheduled to span three months, the tour instead extended into the following summer, followed in early 2001 by a two-week trek through Quebec. That same year Renaud earned a lifetime achievement honor at the Victoires de la Musique awards. No less significantly, he was the subject of Hexagone 2001, a collection of remixes masterminded by contemporary hip-hop artists. Finally, in mid-2002 Renaud returned with Boucan d'Enfer, his first new material in seven years. An unflinchingly honest song cycle detailing his struggles with depression and drink, the album sold close to 500,000 copies in its first week of release. A sold-out 170-date tour followed, with an April 2003 date at the Lille Zenith documented via the live disc Tournée d'Enfer. In early 2005 Renaud produced the eponymous debut LP by singer Romane Serda, who became his wife that August. At year's end, he also published a children's book, Le Petit Oiseau Qui Chantait Faux. With 2006's Rouge Sang, Renaud returned to the protest spirit of his classic work, decrying the rise of right-wing extremists and bourgeois bohemians alike.

Wikipedia:

Renaud Pierre Manuel Séchan, known as Renaud (French pronunciation: [ʁəno]; born in Paris on 11 May 1952), is a popular French singer, songwriter and actor. His characteristically 'broken' voice makes for a very distinctive vocal style. Several of his songs are popular classics in France, including the sea tale "Dès que le vent soufflera", the irreverent "Laisse béton", the ballad "Morgane de toi" and the nostalgic "Mistral gagnant". However, with the exception of a recording of "Miss Maggie" in English and a franglais recording of It is not because you are, his work is almost unknown outside the French-speaking world.

Early work

Fresh out of school, Renaud was determined to become an actor. By chance he met the actor Patrick Dewaere and was invited to join the company of the comedy theatre Café de la Gare, which had recently been founded by Patrick Dewaere, Coluche, and Miou Miou.

His early work is characterized by a volatile temperament, innovative use of French, and edgy, dark, left-wing social and political themes. Raised in an educated milieu, the son of an intellectual, Renaud adopted the looks and attitude of working-class youth in the 1970s, and reflected this in his lyrics. A recurrent theme is his disgust for the average French people with petit-bourgeois preoccupations and right-wing leanings (see beauf). His music focuses on the disparity between classes, the abuse of political power, overbearing authority and disgust for the military, with rare glimpses of tenderness for his fellow humans, the planet earth, and art.

Middle period

In the later 1980s and 1990s Renaud's work was distinguished by "softer" subjects such as his wife (later ex-wife) Dominique, his daughter Lolita and his friends, as well as the late comedian and singer Coluche for whom he wrote the tribute "Putain de camion" ("Bloody Lorry") after Coluche's death in a road accident. He has also ventured into regional music and language, such as the language of Marseille in La Belle de Mai, the north with Renaud cante el' Nord and even Corsican polyphonics in "Lolito lolita".

Resurgence

After an unproductive period marked by alcohol addiction, he made a very significant comeback with his 2002 album Boucan d'enfer. That album's iconic hit was "Manhattan-Kaboul", a powerful duo with Axelle Red which tackled current issues by drawing a parallel between a victim of the 9-11 attacks in New York and an Afghan girl, both victims of a war they don't understand.

In 2009 Renaud released Molly Malone – Balade irlandaise his long awaited album of classic Irish balads. Produced by ex-Boomtown Rats bassist Pete Briquette, the album was commercially successful (certified double-platinum in just over a month) but the singer's feeble, often out-of-tune vocals caused some negative reviews.

Personal life

Renaud's father Olivier Séchan was a prize-winning novelist and popular children's writer, born to a Protestant Languedoc family from the Cévennes and Montpellier. He taught German language in a secondary school of Paris. The director Edmond Séchan is his uncle. His grandfather was the famous scholar and Hellenist Louis Séchan, who taught in the Sorbonne. His ancestors were pastors. His mother is the daughter of a coal miner from the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region. Renaud dedicated part of his work to his familial roots, singing traditional songs in the regional picard language and acting in Germinal, a film based on the famous Emile Zola novel, in the part of Étienne Lantier.

In 2006 Renaud married Romane Serda, the mother of his son Malone. In 2007, he announced to the press his intention to move his family to London citing a love for British society and expressing disillusionment at the current state of France. In 2009 Renaud's daughter, writer Lolita Séchan, married French acoustic singer-songwriter Renan Luce.

Films

Awards

Chronology

• 1952 May 11 : born in Paris, son of a teacher for German language.

• 1968 Crève salope! First successful song—among the students.

• 1980 August: Birth of his daughter Lolita.

• 1985 Moscow: Déserteur; All the spectators leave spontaneous the concert hall.

• 1986 Advertising for the brewer Kanterbrau™

• 1992 (-1993) Contributor for the satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo: Renaud bille en tête.

• 1993 He plays the part of ‚Étienne Lantier‘ in the film Germinal of Claude Berri.

• 1995 (-1996) Contributor again for Charlie Hebdo: Envoyé spécial chez moi.

• 1999 Abandoned by his wife Dominique.

• 2005 2nd marriage (with the Singer Romane Serda); Birth of his son Malone.

• 2006 Les Bobos | The Bobos Satire on the Parisian lower bourgeoisie.

• 2011 August 3: Birth of his grand daughter ( daughter of his daughter Lolita Séchan )

• 2011 2nd divorce.