the essential
Singer Gilles Dreu, who had success with “Alouette” in 1968, died in Ardèche following cancer at the age of 90.
Lark, lark (since everything is going wrong)
We gotta party (I'm taking you to the dance)
So come on my shoulder
Come warm up
You'll see I'm funny
I know how to dance well
With “Alouette”, the singer Gilles Dreu had signed one of the hits of the year 1968. This Argentinian song had been adapted into French by Pierre Delanoë for the lyrics. The song was the biggest hit of his career. “I was the first Frenchman, after Aphrodite's Child and the Beatles. Claude François and Johnny were far behind!”, Gilles Dreu confided to the magazine Schnock in 2023. “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 evoked a bit of Che Guevara as a poster in all the student rooms. For the record, singer Jean-Claude Pascal refused to perform this title.
Without ever managing to repeat this success, Gilles Dreu recorded more than 200 songs in his career. In 2020, he published a 16th studio album “Le Comptoir des amis”, unreleased songs in the form of duets with notably Serge Lama, Fabienne Thibault, Didier Barbelivien, Stone and Gérard Lenorman.
-Gilles Dreu joined the “Age tendre et tête de bois” tours a few years ago. In 2022, he performed at the Olympia one last time during an evening in tribute to Jacques Brel, with other artists.
Gilles Dreu had been fighting cancer since 2020. He died this Tuesday morning in Vals-les-Bains in Ardèche. He was 90 years old.
