Jacques Higelin

Biography

Jacques Joseph Victor Higelin (18 October 1940 – 6 April 2018) was a French pop singer who rose to prominence in the early 1970s.

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.

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 70's 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.

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.

Source: Article "Jacques Higelin" from Wikipedia in English, licensed under CC-BY-SA 3.0.