Enrico Macias
Enrico Macias (civil Gaston Ghrenassia ) (born December 11, 1938 in Constantine , Algeria ) is a French chansonnier .
biography
Gaston Ghrenassia was born in what was then the French department of Algeria into a Jewish family who, as a Maaluf musician, cultivated Arabic-Andalusian music. As a child he played guitar with friends of his Gitanos who called him petit Enrico (little Enrico). He was first a primary school teacher, but continued to play guitar in the orchestra of Raymond Leyris , called Cheikh Raymond (Sheikh Raymond), his future father-in-law. When he was shot dead by members of the FLN during the Algerian War on June 22, 1961 , this prompted Gaston and his wife Suzy, Raymond's daughter, to emigrate to France on July 29, 1961. The couple first settled in Argenteuil and later moved to Paris .
Here the artist appeared as a singer in a concert with Gilbert Bécaud and also had a first television appearance. When the secretary of a record company asked for his last name, he replied "Nassia", which was noted as "Macias". It was through this misunderstanding that he came up with his stage name Enrico Macias .
He became known internationally as the chanteur de variétés (entertainment singer ) and was finally appointed UN ambassador for peace by Kurt Waldheim in 1980 . In 1985 he was accepted into the French Legion of Honor by French Prime Minister Laurent Fabius and made its officer in April 2007. Some of the songs he sang, such as Adieu mon pays (Adieu, my homeland), have become symbolic for the emigration of the pieds-noirs .
Macias has been a political supporter of Israel for years , but he speaks out against Jewish settlements on occupied Arab land and at the same time in favor of an independent Palestinian state on the side of Israel. Since emigrating from Algeria in 1961, he has not returned to the country of his birth. His request to accompany French President Nicolas Sarkozy on an official tour of Algeria in December 2007 was rejected by Algerian Prime Minister Abdelaziz Belkhadem . As a continuation of his career, Macias has had regular appearances with North African musicians since the end of the 1990s, in France, but especially in Morocco, Turkey and Egypt and since then has been cultivating the Arab-Andalusian music style again. He now also presents his hits from the 1960s in his concerts, mostly following an oriental pattern and accompanied by oriental instruments.
swell
- ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JDm7v2TTPW4
- ↑ November 28, 2007 Article from Liberation (French).
Web links
- Enrico Macias in the Internet Movie Database (English)
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Macias, Enrico |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Ghrenassia, Gaston (real name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | French chansonnier |
| DATE OF BIRTH | December 11, 1938 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Constantine , Algeria |