Gilles Dreu died on the morning of Tuesday January 7, 2025 at his home in Vals-les-Bains, in Ardèche. He was 90 years old and, although the causes of his death remained confidential, he revealed that he was suffering from cancer in 2020. It was on behalf of his family that his producer, Pierre-Nicolas Cléré, made this announcement to our colleagues atAFP. Famous for its title Lark, larkreleased in 1968, the musician and performer performed one last time at the Olympia, in 2023, during an evening in tribute to Jacques Brel. A year earlier, he celebrated his 63rd career at La Nouvelle Eve, in Paris, while his last studio album – the sixteenth – was released in 2020. Entitled The Friends Counterthis one is made up of unreleased songs performed in duets. Thus, we find, among others, the voices of Serge Lama, Fabienne Thibault and Didier Barbelivien.
Death of Gille Dreu: Lark, larka success in the middle of May 68
Real name Jean-Paul Chapuisat, Gilles Dreu adopts this pseudonym in homage to the town where he was born in 1934: Dreux, in Eure-et-Loir. Spotted in 1959 by the owner of a cabaret in Montmartre, the young man signed his first contract in 1963. He released his first record but also worked in cinema: he played a few small roles in popular films (Les Cracks, Surprise sock) and does dubbing. It was in 1968 that Gilles Dreu experienced his greatest success. Lark, larka song written by Pierre Delanoë, takes up the musical theme The pilgrimagean 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 right time“, boasted Gilles Dreu during an interview for the magazine Schnockin 2023. It must be said that the title was released in the middle of May 68, “we were in a Latin American atmosphere in 68, a revolutionary period. I had a physique, mustache and cigar, which evoked a bit of Che Guevara as a poster in all the student rooms“, the artist remembered.
“My whole life has been a misunderstanding“: Gilles Dreu, a multifaceted artist
“My whole life has been a misunderstanding!“, joked Gilles Dreu in this same interview for Schnock. If he specifies that he was not the first to be offered the song which became his biggest success, the artist nevertheless recorded more than 200 subsequently. If he imagined himself a gym teacher, Gilles Dreu said goodbye as a singer last February. “I won’t be a singer tomorrow morning. Tonight is really the last time. And, even though I bragged about never having stage fright, tonight I did.“, he confided to his audience during his last concert, in Vendée. But Gilles Dreu also hosted his own television show, entitled Never Dreu without threeon the Télé Monte-Carlo channel, in 1973, wrote a book, The Easy Formpublished in 1988, or composed the soundtrack for the film A one-way ticket (1971) and that of My sister for television the same year.
