The singer Gilles Dreu, singer of the song “Alouette”, a hit from the 60s, died this Tuesday morning, January 7, at the age of 90, in his adopted village of Vals-les-Bains , in Ardèche.
In 2022, Jean-Paul Chapuisat, his real name, visited his hometown where Mayor Pierre-Frédéric Billet and his municipal team presented him with a medal.
Singing in Dreux was for him a way of “coming full circle”. It was in fact in homage to his hometown that he took Gilles Dreu as his stage name.
He remembered with emotion the circumstances of this strange baptism.
“It was in 1959, during an audition in a cabaret in Montmartre. I didn’t have a stage name. I needed one very quickly so I chose Dreu by removing the “x” to avoid it making us our city. Gilles Dreu, it was great.”
A name that rather brought him luck since he enjoyed success with his famous song Larkin 1968, and has never stopped writing and singing with 250 songs in his repertoire. His latest album was released in 2021, marking the return of an artist who had been somewhat in the shadows.
On the Theater stage with Fabienne Thibeault and Stone
When he came to Dreux, Gilles Dreu had already revealed two years ago that he had cancer. But, that did not prevent him from taking the stage of the Theater for a gala hosted by the Lions Club dean of Dreux and Gilbert Berteaux.
He then confided to Republican Echo that he was “delighted to come and sing in the city where I was born and particularly happy to share the stage with Fabienne Thibeault and Stone”.
Only one regret for the Dreux public: He did not have time to write a song in homage to the city where he was born, as he had suggested during his stopover in Dreux.
The disappearance of Gilles Dreu could only move Gilbert Berteaux.
It is to the car dealer and patron of Dreux that we owe the gala which took place in May 2022 at the Théâtre de Dreux with the singer Gilles Dreu. “I had the idea of inviting him to sing in Dreux to raise funds for the benefit of Covid little hands. He was delighted to come and sing in Dreux, his hometown from which he had taken the name.”
This attachment to the town of Dreux could only please Gilbert Berteaux who says he himself is in love with the town for which he regularly works. Gilbert Berteaux has very good memories of this day of May 18, 2022: “We had an excellent evening. It was very warm, Gilles Dreu was really happy to come and sing at his place and the Theater was full.”
The singer had expressed the desire to return to sing in Dreux: fate decided otherwise. But he will remain in the hearts of those who welcomed him to Dreux two years ago.
