From a childhood in a caravan to the Enfoirés troupe: at 27, Kendji Girac, seriously injured by bullets on Monday, promoted the gypsy identity to become a popular figure in French song. Portrait.
imago images/Hans Lucas
“The basis remains and will always remain the gipsy to which I add sounds that may interest me because the particularity of the gipsy (popularized by the Gipsy Kings, editor’s note) is that you can mix it with everything,” said he with AFP in 2021.
Originally from Périgueux in Dordogne, Kendji Maillé, his real name, was born into a family of Catalan gypsy origin. He spent his childhood in the family caravan, the summer on the roads, the winter sedentary in the Dordogne.
Gunshot wound to the chest
- It was at the Biscarrosse travel area (Landes) that the gendarmes were called on Monday around 5:30 a.m. for a man seriously injured by a gunshot to the chest.
- Kendji Girac was immediately transported to a hospital in Bordeaux.
- His vital prognosis is not in jeopardy.
- At this stage, no leads have been ruled out, said a Source close to the investigations.
Music was introduced to him by his father. “At home, we listened a lot to Camarón de la Isla, Paco de Lucía, Luis Mariano and of course the Gipsy Kings,” he explained to AFP
This is how he will learn Spanish, his mother tongue being Catalan. In the same way, he only learned French at school, which he left at the end of college.
“I wrote phonetically”
In 2020, Kendji Girac delivered a lot of himself in “Champion”, a TV film broadcast on TF1 around the theme of illiteracy. “I learned to read at school, but I didn’t know how to write like someone who had a traditional school career,” he confided in Le Parisien. I made a lot of spelling mistakes, I wrote phonetically, in fact. At the time, I didn’t feel shame, more embarrassment.”
He began singing in cafes at the age of 13 where he stood out thanks to his tenor voice and his mastery of the guitar, which had become his favorite object. “I take her everywhere, she makes me create things, she makes me meet people. I have a very, very good relationship with her.”
It was “a little by accident” that he achieved fame, when in August 2013 his uncle published a video in which he covered Gims’ hit, “Bella,” on the guitar.
The portrait: Kendji Girac
Portrait of French singer Kendji Girac, very seriously injured by gunfire and hospitalized in Bordeaux (south-west), where his vital prognosis is no longer in jeopardy after having been for a time, according to a Source close to the case at AFP.
04/22/2024
In a few hours, the video went viral and he was invited to participate in the show The Voice, which he won in 2014. That year, when he was just an adult, he released his first album, “Kendji », which will sell more than a million and a half copies. This year he is celebrating 10 years of his recording career.
Ariana Grande
Carried by the hits “Color Gitano” and “Andalouse”, today respectively 151 and 406 million views on YouTube, it lays the foundations of what will become its musical identity: a sound with flamenco tones, all on a language French interspersed with Spanish words.
At the same time, he recorded the French version of the hit “One last time” with the American pop star, Ariana Grande. A consecration for a French artist, even if this title will have less resonance (14 million views on the singer’s YouTube).
Less than a year later he returned with his second opus “Ensemble”, then, in 2018, “Amigo” appeared. “Mi vida” will follow in 2020 then “The school of life” in 2022. Without being a spokesperson for the traveling community, Kendji Girac nevertheless wants to carry “his gypsy identity loud and clear”, in a country where stereotypes targeting this community still endure.
Father of a little girl
Father of a little girl since 2021, Kendji Girac was also coach of The Voice Kids, a telecrochet dedicated to young talents. With more than 5 million albums sold, he has also become a pillar of the Enfoirés, this troop of artists singing in favor of the Restos du Coeur.
