Michel Delpech

Jean-Michel Delpech (French pronunciation: [ʒɑ̃ miʃɛl dɛlpɛʃ]; 26 January 1946 2 January 2016), known as Michel Delpech, was a French singer-songwriter and actor. Jean-Michel Bertrand Delpech was born the 26th january of 1946 in Courbevoie, a city located nearby the parisian suburbs. Born during the baby boom, he’s the son of Bertrand Charles Delpech, a metal chrome plater and Christiane Cécile Marie Josselin, housewife. He has got 2 little sisters : Catherine and Martine. His maternal family (Josselin) is a winegrower family, owner and harvesters of champagne in Gyé-Sur-Seine in the Aube department. His father's ancestral home is in Sologne, more especially in Dhuizon, where his hairdresser grandfather lives and also in La Ferté-Saint-Cyr, where live his uncles and cousins grocers, loggers and farmers. The young Michel spends week-ends and holidays in his provincial family, sometimes working in the grocery store of his aunt. His parents having moved to Cormeilles-en-Parisis in Seine-et-Oise (today known as Val-d’Oise), Jean-Michel Delpech studied in the Chabanne college and in the Pontoise’s Camille-Pissarro high-school from 1961 to 1964. As a teenager he got passionate about famous classic singers such as Luis Mariano, and then for the great names from the 1950s such as Gilbert Bécaud and Charles Aznavour. In 1963, in high school, he created a little orchestra with his schoolmates. Before attending his final high school exams, he left high school in january 1964 to focus on singing. He took a chance by attending an audition in Paris to join the disque Vogue record company. Just aged 18, he released his first disc named Anatole, and met the composer Roland Vincent. While going to Roland’s house based in Saint-Cloud for a working session, he rethinks about his highschool years and about the café he used to go with his mates after the school day. In the train, between Saint Lazare and Saint Cloud train station, he writes the lyrics of Chez Laurette, for which Roland Vincent felt seduced and inspired and quickly found a melody.