Michel Charles Sardou (French pronunciation: [miʃɛl ʃaʁl saʁdu] ; born 26 January 1947) is a French singer and occasional actor.
Sardou is known not only for his love songs ("La maladie d'amour", "Je vais t'aimer"), but also for songs dealing with various social and political issues, such as the rights of women in Islamic countries ("Musulmanes"), clerical celibacy ("Le curé"), colonialism ("Le temps des colonies", "Ils ont le pétrole mais c'est tout") or the death penalty ("Je suis pour"). Another sometimes controversial theme found in some of his songs ("Les Ricains" and "Monsieur le Président de France" for example) is his respect and support for the culture and foreign policies of the United States of America. He has been accused of being a racist due to his 1976 song "Le temps des colonies", in which a former colonial soldier proudly tells his memories of colonialism, but Sardou has always claimed the song was sarcastic. His 1981 single "Les lacs du Connemara" was an international hit (especially in the Netherlands). A number of his hit songs were written in collaboration with Jacques Revaux and Pierre Delanoë, a few others (most notably "En chantant") with Italian singer Toto Cutugno.
Sardou sold out eighteen consecutive dates at Palais Omnisports de Paris-Bercy in 2001, while his 2004 album Du plaisir went straight to the number one spot on the French album charts. With a recording career of fifty years, Sardou has released 25 studio albums, 18 live albums and has recorded more than 350 songs (chiefly in French but also in Spanish, Italian and even English) and has sold more than 100 million records. Currently he is considered one of the most popular artists in the Francophone world and one of the most lucrative, both in sales and in his shows.
Contents
Biography
Childhood
Michel Sardou was born on 26 January 1947 in Paris. His father, Fernand Sardou, was a singer and an actor while his mother, Jackie Sardou was an actress. His paternal grandfather, Valentin Sardou, was a comedian in Marseille, while his grandmother was a singer.
Sardou left school at 16.
Career
Sardou began working as a waiter in his father's cabaret in Montmartre. He eventually met Michel Fugain and auditioned for Eddie Barclay. In 1965, Sardou began his recording career with "Le madras", co-written with Michel Fugain and Patrice Laffont.
In 1967, Sardou's career really picked up, thanks to censorship: while France left NATO's integrated military command and the Vietnam War was causing anti-American sentiment in France, Sardou released "Les Ricains" (The Yanks), a song which stated the debt of gratitude towards the US for the liberation of France. Charles de Gaulle did not like the song and he advised against its broadcast on state radio and television. This gave the singer a new notoriety, and the song let him lay the foundations for his future artistic style. However, from 1967 to 1970, he still found it difficult to have big hits.
In view of the mitigated success of Sardou's singles, in 1969, Eddie Barclay decided to terminate his contract, estimating that Sardou was not cut out to be a singer. So, he founded the record label Tréma (which stands for Talar Revaux Éditions Musicales Associées), which would produce his records, with his friends Jacques Revaux (who will become his most loyal composer) and Régis Talar, a French record producer.
Sardou really met true success in 1970, when he released his first studio album, J'habite en France. Three songs extracted from this work became hits : "J'habite en France" ("I Live in France"), "Et mourir de plaisir" ("To die of pleasure") but mainly "Les bals populaires" ("Popular Dances"), which reached the top of the French chart.
From this album, the hits would be uninterrupted throughout the 1970s. The songs "Le rire du sergent" ("The Sergeant's Laugh") (1971), "Le surveillant général" ("The Superintendent") (1972) found favour with the public. But his success was sealed in 1973 with the album La maladie d'amour. Its title track "La maladie d'amour" ("The Lovelorne"), "Les vieux mariés" ("The old married couple", but adapted in English under the title "It's not too late to start again") and "Les villes de solitude" ("Cities of Solitude") would eventually become great successes. However, this last song triggered a controversy as Sardou takes the role of a man who, tired of his monotonous daily routine, drunkenly expresses his brutal fantasies (of robbing a bank and raping women), but never acts on them. The feminist organisation MLF objected.
Personal life
Sardou married Françoise Pettré, a dancer, in 1965. They have two daughters: Sandrine (born on 15 January 1970) and Cynthia (born on 4 December 1973). They divorced in 1977. He married his second wife, Elizabeth Haas, called "Babette", in October 1977. They have two sons: Romain, writer (born on 6 January 1974) and Davy, actor (born on 1 June 1978). They divorced in June 1999. On 11 October 1999, married Anne-Marie Périer, the daughter of the actor François Périer and the sister of the photographer Jean-Marie Périer. She is the former editor-in-chief of Elle magazine. They were married in Neuilly-sur-Seine by then-mayor Nicolas Sarkozy.
Discography
Compilation albums
1980 : 20 chansons d'or
1984 : 20 chansons d'or, volume 2
1984 : Sardou, ses plus grandes chansons
1986 : Sardou, ses plus grandes chansons (volume 2)
1988 : Regards
1989 : Les Grandes Chansons
1989 : Intégrale 1989
1993 : Les Années Barclay
1994 : Intégrale 1966–1994
1995 : Intégrale 1965–1995
1996 : Les Grands Moments
2000 : Raconte une histoire (original recordings of his first songs with Barclay from 1965 à 1967)
2003 : MS
2004 : Anthologie
2005 : Michel Sardou
2007 : L'Intégrale Sardou
2007 : Les 100 plus belles chansons
2008 : Les 50 plus belles chansons (rerelease)
2009 : Les N°1 de Michel Sardou
2009 : Master Series
2009 : Master Series, volume 2
2012 : Les Grands Moments
2014 : Michel Sardou – La Collection officielle
Singles and various songs
Best known for songs before 1983
"Le madras"
"Les Ricains"
"J'habite en France"
"Et mourir de plaisir"
"Les bals populaires"
"Le rire du sergent"
"Le surveillant général"
"La maladie d'amour"
"Les vieux mariés"
"Les villes de solitude"
"le France"
"J'accuse"
"Le temps des colonies"
"Je suis pour..."
"La java de Broadway"
"Dix ans plus tôt"
"En chantant"
"Comme d'habitude"
"Je vole"
"Les lacs du Connemara"
"Être une femme"
"Afrique adieu"
"Il était là"
"Rouge"
"Chanteur de jazz"
"Je vais t'aimer"
Hits after 1983 with chart positions
Emblematic songs
"Les bals populaires" ("The Popular Dances"), released in 1970. The song deals with the popular village dance parties which were fashionable in the 1970s.
"La maladie d'amour" ("The Disease of Love"), released in 1973. It is certainly Michel Sardou's most famous song and stayed at the top of the charts for 11 weeks. Michel drew his inspiration for this song from Pachelbel's Canon. A few bars from the Beatles' "Let It Be" can also be heard in the song.
"Le France" ("SS France"), released in 1975. Sardou resents the selling of the liner SS France by the President of France Valéry Giscard d'Estaing. A very controversial song, it was welcomed by the French Communist Party despite their view of Sardou as being a reactionary due to other songs of his.
"Être une femme" ("Being a woman"), released in 1981. A satirical view on the evolution of women's social status. Sardou makes a list of different jobs expected to be occupied by women (police officer, whore, President of France...) but specifies that whatever they do, they still retain their femininity.
"Les lacs du Connemara" ("The Lakes of Connemara"), released in 1981. A lyrical evocation of Ireland and another one of his most popular songs, it is very often sung at the end of French student parties and at weddings in France or in Belgium. The song also has a tourism impact, with an estimated 350,000 additional visits to Connemara. Kylemore Abbey, the first tourist attraction in the region, has 20% French visitors, and guided tours are offered in this language. Of the 350,000 French who visit Ireland annually, more than half go to Connemara.
"Musulmanes" ("Muslim women"), released in 1986. Sardou casts a pessimistic gaze on the status of women in Arabic countries. The song received, in 1987, the Music Victory for the best song of the year.
"La rivière de notre enfance" ("The River of our childhood"), released in 2004. Performed in duet with the Canadian singer Garou, the song nostalgically evokes the traces of our childhood which persist in our lives. This song, extracted from his album Du plaisir, also marked his comeback after three years of inactivity.
Collaborations and appearances
1980: Musical Les Misérables
1989: "Pour toi Arménie", collective charity song headed by Charles Aznavour
2000: Happy Birthday Live – Parc de Sceaux 15 June 2000 (live album that remained unpublished from 2000 until album 2020), in duet with Johnny Hallyday on "Quelque chose de Tennessee"
2004: Eddy Mitchell's Frenchy Tour, released as a live album, where Sardou sang in duet the song "Sur la route de Memphis"
Other activities
Theatre manager
Sardou was the owner of the Théâtre de la Porte Saint-Martin in Paris from 2001 to 2003.
Theatre actor
1996 : Bagatelle(s) by Noël Coward, directed by Pierre Mondy, in the Théâtre de Paris, with Natacha Amal, Philippe Khorsand, Frédéric Diefenthal...
1999 : Comédie privée by Neil Simon, directed by Adrian Brine, in the Théâtre du Gymnase Marie Bell, with Marie-Anne Chazel.
2001–2002 : L'Homme en question by Félicien Marceau, directed by Jean-Luc Tardieu, on tour and in the Théâtre de la Porte Saint-Martin, with Brigitte Fossey, Davy Sardou...
2008–2009 : Secret de famille by Éric Assous, directed by Jean-Luc Moreau, in the Théâtre des Variétés, with Davy Sardou, Laurent Spielvogel, Mathilde Penin, Elisa Servier and Rita Brantalou.
2014 : Si on recommençait by Éric-Emmanuel Schmitt, directed by Steve Suissa, in the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, with Anna Gaylor and Florence Coste.
2015 : Représailles by Éric Assous, in the Théâtre de la Michodière, with Marie-Anne Chazel.
Film actor
1982 : L'été de nos 15 ans by Marcel Jullian: Bernard. with Cyrielle Claire, Elisa Servier and others
1987 : Cross by Philippe Setbon: Thomas Crosky, called Cross. With Roland Giraud, Patrick Bauchau, Marie-Anne Chazel and others
1990 : Promotion canapé by Didier Kaminka: Bernard. With Grace de Capitani, Thierry Lhermitte, Claude Rich, Patrick Chesnais, Jean-Pierre Castaldi, Zabou, Martin Lamotte, Pierre Richard, Eddy Mitchell and others
TV actor
1993: L'irlandaise by José Giovanni : Régis Cassani. With Jean-Michel Dupuis, Thérèse Liotard...
2003: Le prix de l'honneur by Gérard Marx : le colonel Christian Legoff. With Alexandra Vandernoot...