Home » News » Death of Christophe: and we cried, cried…

Death of Christophe: and we cried, cried…


We will no longer go to boulevard du Montparnasse at night. We will no longer smile when we see the sign at its door “Love Nest.” Do not disturb “. He will no longer open his studio apartment to us cluttered with instruments, computers and jukeboxes, to speak until dawn about the beauty of music, cinema, women and Tangier… Christophe is deceased Thursday April 16, at the age of 74, in Brest (Finistère). Daniel Bevilacqua, whose real name was, died of “emphysema”, a lung disease, Véronique Bevilacqua, his wife, told AFP.

The singer had been hospitalized in Paris for respiratory failure on March 26 before being transferred, two weeks later, to Brest.

“Dandy a little cursed” – as he sang in “Les Paradis Perdus”, but never aged, Christophe had been a unique case in song for 55 years. Both popular and famous for its multiple hits – “Aline” and “Les Marionnettes” in 1965, “Les Paradis Perdus” in 1973, “Les Mots bleus” and “Senorita” in 1974, “Petite fille du soleil” in 1975 , “La Dolce Vita” in 1977… Often slows, never bluettes. And both cult and celebrated by hipsters and rock stars – from Alan Vega of the Suicide duo to Lou Reed – for his attitude, his fierce freedom, his avant-garde and his masterpieces of melancholy and d daring.

Christophe started his career in 1963. Two years later, “Aline” will be the hit of the summer. / Gamma-Rapho

Everything was singular about him. His life against the light, his soft and crystalline voice and his speed so fast that we did not always understand him, his funny frumpy body, his royal simplicity… Despite this, he spoke little of his private life, of his wife Véronique , with whom he married in 1971 and had a daughter, Lucie. Even less of the son born from his affair with Michèle Torr. He always managed to indulge while keeping his mystery.

Idol of young people at 20

Daniel Bevilacqua comes from Juvisy-sur-Orge (Essonne) and from a family of Italian immigrants. The father owns a central heating business, his mother is a seamstress. Their divorce marks the end of a cloudless youth. Daniel discovers James Dean, Elvis and the guitar. “I wanted to do so many things when I was a teenager: fairground, working in fashion, he told the JDD last year. And then the music grabbed me. I gave my first concert in a cinema in my suburbs: Ciné Vogue. I was 15 years old and I played blues between the news and the film. “

After trying the collective experience in Danny Baby and the Hooligans, he launches solo under the pseudonym of Christophe in reference to the cross of Saint-Christophe which he wears around his neck. His first single, “Reviens Sophie”, is a flop. But a lunch at her grandmother’s will change her life. He composes “Aline” there. It was the slow summer of 1965.

But to showbiz, this rebel prefers the circus and the Ferraris. He dreams of becoming a professional driver, even wins a race in 1968 on the Magny-Cours circuit, and lives at 200 an hour. The love of speed will cost him his license in 2001. He will never lower himself to iron it and it is a certain Carlos Ghosn who will lend him a cart without a license to take a summer ride in the South.

“The Blue Words” and the long disappearance

In 1971, he took the right turn with producer Francis Dreyfus and Jean-Michel Jarre. Christophe and the young lyricist have an obsession with concept albums and electronic music. “We have always been complementary,” confirms Christophe in 2016. I have an edge on the surface. Jean-Michel has a more intellectual side. He wrote the blue words, me the puppets. “

Leave a Comment

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.