Jacques Joseph Victor Higelin (French pronunciation: [ʒak ʒozɛf viktɔʁ iʒlɛ̃]; 18 October 1940 – 6 April 2018) was a French pop singer who rose to prominence in the early 1970s.
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Early life
Higelin was born on 18 October 1940. His father, Paul, a railway worker and musician of Alsatian descent, introduced his two sons to various forms of music. Their mother, Renée, was of Belgian descent, and raised both the boys.
Career
Higelin's entertainment career began at age 14, when he left school to work as a stunt double. While playing several minor roles in motion pictures, Higelin was taught to play the guitar by Henri Crolla, a French-Italian jazz guitarist and a composer of film scores. By the early 1960s, Higelin was attending the René Simon drama school, where he won the François Périer award.
After his mandatory two-year military service, he resumed his film career around 1963 but began to focus more on music. By the end of the decade, he had become very active in the artistic underground in Paris and began to channel his music towards radical activism.
Higelin began attracting popular attention through his live concerts, typically held in smaller venues, and released his first solo album in 1971. By the middle of the 1970s, Higelin had become one of France's most successful pop musicians, and he remains influential to this day.
In the 1970s, Higelin was in a relationship with a Vietnamese woman named Kuelan Nguyen. They had a son together.
In 1976, Nguyen accompanied Higelin during the recording of an album at the Château d'Hérouville, where Iggy Pop was also recording his debut solo album The Idiot. Pop became infatuated with Nguyen and had an affair with her. The two did not speak the same language, communicating through gestures and expressions. The incident inspired his song "China Girl", which he wrote with David Bowie. Although not successful when Pop released it, the song later became a hit when re-recorded by Bowie in 1983 for his album Let's Dance, charting in the UK and the United States.
Personal life and death
Higelin had three children, each by a different woman. They all became artists:
Arthur H, singer, born to Nicole Courtois in 1966
Kên Higelin, actor, born to Kuelan Nguyen in 1972
daughter Izïa, singer, born to dancer Aziza Zakine in 1990. Higelin married Zakine in 2011.
Higelin died on 6 April 2018 in Paris at the age of 77.
Discography
Albums
Studio albums (non-charting)
1971 – Jacques "Crabouif" Higelin
1976 – Irradié
1976 – Alertez les bébés !
1978 – No Man's Land
1979 – Champagne pour tout le monde, and Caviar pour les autres... (also released as a double album under the title Champagne et Caviar, currently the standard edition)
1980 – La Bande du Rex
1982 – Higelin 82
1985 – Aï (double album)
1988 – Tombé du ciel
1991 – Illicite
1994 – Aux héros de la voltige
1998 – Paradis paien
2005 – Jacque Higelin chante Vian et Higelin
2006 – Amor Doloroso
2010 – Coup de foudre
2013 – Beau Repaire
Studio albums (charting)
Live albums (non-charting)
1981: Higelin à Mogador (triple album, 2 CDs)
1983: Casino de Paris (1 album, 1 CD)
1986: Higelin à Bercy (triple album, 2 CD)
1990: Follow the Live (double album, 1 CD)
Filmography
2004 : Colette, une femme libre, directed by Nadine Trintignant (TV Mini-Series)