Hugues Aufray evokes the suicide of his brother Francesco when he was 25 years old

“He decided to kill himself at 26”. A particularly painful episode mentioned this Sunday, May 4, Hugues Aufray in “seven to eight” this Sunday. The suicide of his brother Francesco in 1955. The interpreter of Santiano was only 25 years old at the time.

This big brother was one of the pillars of Hugues Aufray’s life. “He was like my father, who was absent, it was the man of the house”he recalls before contextualizing: “During the seven years that followed my parents’ divorce, I did not see my father.”

An impossible marriage

“It is following a love sorrow caused by an impossible marriage”explains the singer to Audrey Crespo-Mara. “He was very in love with a very young Chinese girl, whose parents were Buddhists. Parents said no to their marriage because of religion ”he adds.

“This is the injury of my life. We cannot recover from that, we survive with memories that come back ”testifies the singer who salutes, even today, the talent of Francesco: “My brother had a natural vocal gift. It would have been one of the greatest voices of the century ”.

Even gone, his brother had a decisive role in his career as a musician: “One day, I was on the piano, but I couldn’t read the notes. He looked at me and told me “You will be a concertist”. The years passed and when I had the chance to sing in Pleyel, it was the place where I was going with my brother to listen to the big symphonic orchestras. When I returned to Pleyel’s stage, I arrived, I was in the center I said to myself, my brother’s word came true. ”