Jacques Higelin

Jacques Joseph Victor Higelin (18 October 1940 – 6 April 2018) was a French pop singer who rose to prominence in the early 1970s. Early in his career, many of Higelin's songs were effectively blacklisted from French radio because of his controversial left-wing political beliefs and his association with left-wing advocacy groups.

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.

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.

Discography:
• 1971 – Jacques "Crabouif" Higelin
• 1974 - BBH 75
• 1976 – Irradié
• 1976 – Alertez les bébés !
• 1978 – No Man's Land
• 1979 – Champagne pour tout le monde, and Caviar pour les autres... (also released as a double album under the title Champagne et Caviar, currently the standard edition)
• 1980 - La Bande du Rex
• 1982 – Higelin 82
• 1985 – Aï (double album)
• 1988 – Tombé du ciel
• 1991 – Illicite
• 1994 – Aux héros de la voltige
• 1998 - Paradis païen
• 2006 - Amor doloroso
• 2010 - Coup de foudre
• 2013 - Beau repaire
• 2016 - Higelin 75

More songs by Jacques Higelin