Jacques Higelin


Jacques Joseph Victor Higelin was a French pop singer who rose to prominence in the early 1970s.

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, while his mother, Renée, of Belgian descent, raised them both.

Career

Higelin's entertainment career began at age 14, when he left school to work as a stunt double. While playing a number of 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 Perier award.
For two years beginning in 1961, Higelin served in the French military in various countries. Upon returning to France, he resumed his film career but increasingly began to focus 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 French-Vietnamese woman called Kuelan Nguyen. She accompanied him during the recording of an album at Château d'Hérouville Studio, where Iggy Pop was also recording his debut solo album "The Idiot". Iggy Pop became infatuated with Nguyen, who rejected him, but the incident inspired the song China Girl, which later became a hit when re-recorded by David Bowie.

Personal life and death

Higelin had three children, all of whom became artists:
  • Arthur H, singer, born to Nicole Courtois in 1966
  • Kên Higelin, actor, born to Kuelan Nguyen in 1972
  • 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
  • 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...
  • 1980 – La Bande du Rex
  • 1982 – Higelin 82
  • 1985 – Aï
  • 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
;Live albums
  • 1981: Higelin à Mogador
  • 1983: Casino de Paris
  • 1986: Higelin à Bercy
  • 1990: Follow the Live
  • 1992: Higelin Le Rex
;Live albums
;Albums with Brigitte Fontaine
  • 1966: 12 chansons d'avant le déluge
  • 1976: 15 chansons d'avant le déluge, suite et fin
;Album with Areski Belkacem
  • 1969: Higelin et Areski
;Compilations