Bernard Lavilliers

Bernard Lavilliers (2011)

Bernard Lavilliers (2006)

Bernard Lavilliers (born October 7, 1946 in Saint-Étienne ; as Bernard Ouillon ) is a French chansonnier .

Life

The son of an employee of the Manufacture nationale d'armes de St-Etienne (MAS for short) and a teacher showed an interest in music very early on. Since his 4th birthday, when he was given a record player, he preferred to listen to the songs of Les Compagnons de la chanson and the Peruvian singer Yma Sumac .

At the age of 13 he entered the MAS as an apprentice. In his free time he devoted himself to boxing . Sentenced to prison for theft, he began to work after his release, but showed no interest in what he did and later wrote: "During this period of my life I looked for myself: I did not know whether I would be a gangster, boxer or poet " .

In 1963 he enrolled in the communist Parti communiste français (PCF). In 1965, at the age of 19, he traveled to Brazil , returned to France the following year and was imprisoned there for one year in the fortress of Metz for desertion.

After his release he appeared in various cabarets and in the Cour des Miracles in Bordeaux as a chansonnier and released his first single in 1967. A first success came with the Prix ​​de la rose d'or de la chanson , with which he was awarded in Montreux for the chanson La Frime . His first LP was produced in 1968 under the pseudonym Lavilliers. During the student revolution of May '68 , Lavilliers sang in occupied factories near Lyons. He stayed in Brittany as a beggar in June before doing several casual jobs in night clubs and in the catering trade.

In the following years he brought out several albums ( Les poètes 1972, Le Stéphanois ) and triumphed in October 1977 on the occasion of his first stage appearance in the legendary Paris Music Hall Olympia . He set up his residence in Saint-Malo , where he bought a boat, but soon went on trips again, which took him to Jamaica , New York and Brazil. During this time he only returned to France for concerts.

In the 1980s, the singer finally made his breakthrough. He achieved a high level of awareness, also took his unbridled lifestyle into hand, but remained true to his image of a globetrotter, adventurer and rebel that he also marketed in his chansons. He himself stated that he had taken drugs, a topic that he addressed in several chansons, such as Berceuse pour une shootée and Sax'Aphone .

In 1992 Lavillers appeared on the occasion of the Fête de l'Humanité together with Léo Ferré , the idol of his youth. As in 1991 when the steelworks in Uckange was closed , at the end of 2011 the singer also appeared in a solidarity event in front of the ArcelorMittal employees in Florange, who were threatened with closure .

Today the singer, who sponsored the Breton lighthouse Phare d'Eckmühl ( Département Finistère ), is involved in the altermondialist movement.

family

Lavillier's first-born daughter is named Anne-Laure (* 1968).

His marriage to Evelyne in 1970 resulted in two children: Virginie (* 1972) and Guillaume (* 1975), who occasionally accompanies his father on stage.

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, the artist was in a relationship with the bodybuilding world champion Lisa Lyon.

In 1984 he married Melle Li. He dedicated a chanson of the same name to his daughter Salomé (* 1987), who appeared with him in 1996 at the Palais des Sports.

Discography

Studio albums

year	title	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes)			Remarks
		FR	BE W	CH
1979	Pouvoirs	FR55 gold (5 weeks)FR	BE W100 (4 weeks) BE W	-	Chart entry in FR and BEW only in 2016
1997	Clair-obscur	FR9 gold (17 weeks)FR	BE W44 (3 weeks) BE W	-
2002	Arret sur image	FR10 gold (36 weeks)FR	BE W27 (3 weeks) BE W	CH67 (12 weeks) CH
2005	Carnets on board	FR1 × 2 Double gold (73 weeks)FR	BE W34 (41 weeks) BE W	CH46 (5 weeks) CH
2008	Samedi soir à Beyrouth	FR1 platinum (73 weeks)FR	BE W11 (21 weeks) BE W	CH19 (9 weeks) CH
2010	Causes perdues et musiques tropicales	FR2 (52 weeks) FR	BE W8 (21 weeks) BE W	CH40 (8 weeks) CH
2013	Baron Samedi	FR5 platinum (52 weeks)FR	BE W28 (33 weeks) BE W	CH56 (7 weeks) CH
2014	Acoustique	FR12 gold (42 weeks)FR	BE W35 (44 weeks) BE W	-
2017	5 minutes au paradis	FR4th gold (32 weeks)FR	BE W10 (41 weeks) BE W	CH16 (6 weeks) CH

gray hatching : no chart data available for this year

More studio albums

• Chanson pour ma mie (1968)
• Les poètes (1972)
• Le Stéphanois (1974)
• Les Barbares (1976)
• 15th Round (1977, FR:gold)
• O gringo (1980, FR:platinum)
• Nuit d'Amour (1981, FR:gold)
• Etat d'Urgence (1983, FR:gold)
• Tout est permis, rien n'est possible (1984)
• Voleur de feu (1986, FR:gold)
• If ... (1988, FR:platinum)
• Solo (1991, FR:gold)
• Champs du possible (1994, FR:× 2Double gold )

Live albums

year	title	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes)			Remarks
		FR	BE W	CH
2000	Histoires en scene	FR24 (5 weeks) FR	-	-
2005	Escale au Grand Rex	FR18 (29 weeks) FR	BE W48 (6 weeks) BE W	-

More live albums

• T'es vivant ...? (1978)
• Live 80 (1980)
• Olympia Live 84 (1984)
• On the Road Again (1990)

Compilations

year	title	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, rankings, weeks, awards, notes)			Remarks
		FR	BE W	CH
2003	La margin: Bernard Lavilliers chante les poètes	FR109 (2 weeks) FR	-	-
2009	Les n ° 1 de Lavilliers	-	BE W78 (1 week) BE W	-
2018	Les 50 plus belles chansons	-	BE W159 (2 weeks) BE W	-

More compilations

• Gentilshommes de fortune (1987)
• Duos Taratata (1996)
• Histoires (1998)

Singles

year	Title album	Top ranking, total weeks, awardChart placementsChart placements (Year, title, album , rankings, weeks, awards, notes)		Remarks
		FR	BE W
1987	Noir et blanc Voleur de feu	FR10 (17 weeks) FR	-
1989	On The Road Again If	FR24 (15 weeks) FR	-
	R & B (Rouge baiser) If	FR45 (4 weeks) FR	-
1991	Outremer solo	FR33 (7 weeks) FR	-
1992	Faits diverse solo	FR36 (6 weeks) FR	-
1995	Melody Tempo Harmony Champs du possible	FR6 (17 weeks) FR	BE W22 (14 weeks) BE W	with Jimmy Cliff
	Stand The Ghetto Champs du possible	FR44 (3 weeks) FR	-
2014	Idées noires Acoustique	FR100 (2 weeks) FR	-	with Catherine Ringer

gray hatching : no chart data available for this year

Awards for music sales

Golden record  France 1995: for the album Master Série - Vol. 2 1995: for the album Bernard Lavilliers 1995: for the album Champs Du Possible V.2

2 × gold record  France 1998: for the album Master Série - Vol. 1

Note: Awards in countries from the chart tables or chart boxes can be found in these.

Country / Region	gold	platinum	Sales	swell
Awards for music sales (country / region, awards, sales, sources)
France (SNEP)	19 × gold19th	4 × platinum4th	2,800,000	infodisc.fr snepmusique.com
All in all	19 × gold19th	4 × platinum4th

swell

1. ↑ "A cette époque de la vie, je me cherchais: je ne savais pas si je serais gangster, boxeur ou poète ..."
2. ^ Lavilliers retrouve la Fensch . Le Quotidien, 17./18. December 2011. p. 17
3. ↑ ^{a b c d} Chart sources: FR BEW CH

Web links

• Biography of Bernard Lavilliers , from Radio France Internationale
• http://histoires.bernard-lavilliers.com/