French singer Gilles Dreu died this Tuesday at the age of 90.
He made his battle with cancer public in 2020.
He performed one last time at the Olympia in 2023 during an evening in tribute to Jacques Brel.
The singer Gilles Dreu, interpreter of ‘Alouette’, a great success of 1968, died Tuesday January 7 at the age of 90 at his home in Vals-les-Bains (Ardèche), the producer announced to AFP Pierre-Nicolas Cléré on behalf of the family The artist who made his cancer public in 2020 had published a 16th and final studio album the same year, The Friends Countercomposed of duets including Serge Lama, Fabienne Thibault, Didier Barbelivien, Stone and Gérard Lenorman. In 2022, Gilles Dreu celebrated his 63rd career on the stage of La Nouvelle Eve in Paris. He performed one last time at the Olympia in 2023 during an evening in tribute to Jacques Brel, with other artists.
A huge success
After starting out in small Parisian cabarets from 1959, the singer was spotted by Léo Missir, the emblematic artistic director of the time. He had his biggest success in 1968 with “Alouette, Alouette”, written by hitmaker Pierre Delanoë, an adaptation of an Argentinian song.
“I was the first Frenchman, after Aphrodite’s Child and the Beatles. Claude François and Johnny were far behind! A great success is the encounter of a work with the performer it needs and at the same time appropriate time”had confided Gilles Dreu to the magazine Schnock in 2023.
The song could have gone unnoticed
Gilles Dreu
“The song could have gone unnoticed. However, we were in a Latin American atmosphere in 68, a revolutionary period. I had a physique, mustache and cigar, which was a bit reminiscent of Che Guevara as a poster in all the student rooms”he added. “At the start, (actor and singer) Jean-Claude Pascal refused this song. My whole life has been a misunderstanding!”he added. Gilles Dreu recorded more than 200 songs, without repeating his first and only major success.
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Born Jean-Paul Chapuisat on July 31, 1934, the man whose pseudonym was inspired by Dreux, his birthplace, returned with the “Âge tender et tête de bois” tours. He has performed regularly as a solo artist in recent years. Gilles Dreu, who was also an actor for cinema and TV series, said his goodbyes in February after a final concert in Vendée. “I will no longer be a singer tomorrow morning. Tonight is really the last time. And, even if I bragged about never having stage fright, tonight I do”he declared.
